Who's on first, I don't know is pitching!
Having spoke with the chairman of the Templeton board of selectmen and having read the face book page of Diane Brooks, Templeton selectmen, the message seems to be that if the school project is halted, Templeton will have to pay some money back to MSBA, which would be at least one million dollars or more. Not so fast says long time school committee member and member of Templeton school building committee. Mr. Mason says that money would come off the "top" if Templeton were to get in the pipeline later down the road. That is, in any future "grant" award, the past payments would be subtracted from any future grants. Example; Templeton would be awarded an MSBA grant of 22 million, then say 2 million already paid out to Templeton, would be subtracted and the future grant would only be 20 million. Seems there is no big debt with associated debt exclusion which would add to the tax rate for stopping the school project. So it would seem both selectmen were speaking out of their hats or were/are trying to scare people into voting a certain way. Seems like it is right up there with the mythical large "free cash" that the selectmen talked about right up until after the yes school vote.
Just remember why we are having a special town meeting to begin with; to fix the numbers document that the selectmen and town administrator told everyone was all fine, proper, balanced and fully funded. While the Advisory Committee raised questions, some still unanswered by way of the selectmen. Advisory Committee pointed out the lack of separation of long term debt principle and interest, lack of separate warrant article for a scholarship fund, lack of a salary number for a library janitor, too high new growth figure, which is reliably available from the Board of Assessors office and the still questionable vehicle excise tax figure. Also was an apparent short fall for unemployment insurance and the ever increasing health insurance costs. The superior board would have none of it, because as selectmen Brooks stated, "we are elected and you are only appointed."
posted by Jeff Bennett
