December 7, 2015 selectmen meeting
Town Administrator made the error by stating the Board of Selectmen would be setting the tax rate tonight. That is wrong, wrong, wrong! The selectmen do not do that! Selectmen do not set the tax rate! They do get to decide if there is a single rate for everyone, as in residents and business or if business gets to pay a larger share of the taxes.
I think if anyone checks, by calling the Assessors office, you will find the Board of Assessors come up with a proposed tax rate, as in so many dollars per thousand, then this information is given to the Massachusetts Dept. of Revenue and they ultimately either approve the rate or tell the Assessors to try again. So if anyone reads in the Gardner News or anywhere else that the BOS set the tax rate, that would be in error, misinformation, or bluntly put, a lie.
Another interesting tid bit was the Planning Board is now looking for additional funds to use for the new Town Master Plan. Seems not to long ago, the Planning Board had a sum of money that they said they did not need so they were going to give it to the highway dept. so they could pay for the excavator. Seems like they should have used that money to pay for the master plan, but hey, I am just a simple guy from Templeton.
One other interesting item was possible new job descriptions and job titles for people in the office of the selectmen. Sounds like growing government just to be bigger. Now it seems we may need an assistant town administrator. Seems like there is alot of work to do so maybe it is time to try something new. The posted hours for the office of selectmen stands at 31 hours. Maybe they should work a full 40 hour week or go back to five days a week. Either way, we do not need more supervisors, we need workers. Remember, this is essentially a 3 person office and perhaps it is time for the selectmen to begin to look for a full time Town Administrator so that position can pick up some of the load. Seems like the Town government is doing all the same things now that were done in the past that got the Town in a mess to begin with.
Jeff Bennett
