Framingham Taxpayers Association Calls For Action Against Runaway Budgeting

The results of exhaustive digging on what went so drastically wrong with Framingham's 2012 residential and commercial property assessments will be spelled out today, Saturday, Feb. 11 at the at 12:30 p.m. in the Costin Room.

Described as an emergency meeting, and of key importance, how the town's taxpayers can survive, this event is sponsored by the Framingham Taxpayers Association and is being held in response to the unprecedented public outcry over the mind-blowing assessments and the demand for sustained corrective action.

The Association's leaders predict that this financial turnaround campaign will go, for starters, up to and through the Spring Town Meeting, slated to start April 24.

The Costin Room, which holds up to 80 people, was deliberately picked by the Association, so its modest size would readily help the meeting function as a focus group of a cross section of the population. 

The purpose, Association officers said, is to get folks of all persuasions to send a wake-up call to town government officials that there can't be business as usual in the midst of the worst financial crisis in Framingham since the Great Depression.

In line with this, the program will feature research by Matt Calder, PhD, a professional statistician, and Town Meeting member. He will focus on comparing the town's assessments with other communities throughout the state and will spell out why Framingham's assessments and tax billing are completely "out of the ball park", especially when it comes to the change in their commercial valuations.

Calder will also explain why residential assessments are not supported by the comparable sales data. And by using the assessor's own valid sales data, he will show that assessments increased far more than the sales data would suggest.

Calder's presentation will be followed up by Nicolas Sanchez, PhD, and former head of the economics department at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. 

Sanchez will illustrate how Framingham's decision makers are literally leading the Framingham's tax and fee payers "over the cliff.".  He emphasized that Town Meeting members, who vote the final approval of budgets, must step up along with the executive branch and exercise financial responsibility at the annual meeting - or live with the perilous results.

The town's tax levy is rising faster than inflation and so are employee salaries and benefits. And water and sewer bills are rising even faster, he added.

Glaring examples of questionable residential and commercial assessments will be provided by George Lewis, a Town Meeting member and highly regarded investigator.

Larry Schmeidler, chair of Precinct 4 and Town Meeting's public works committee, will briefly cite how the sharp hike in tax bills will hurt one of the town's most vulnerable populations - seniors.  And he will urge all seniors to lobby their town meeting members and attend the annual meeting.

After the presentation, Association officer Enzo Rotatori, a retired businessman and former Town Meeting member, will conduct a Q and A session, inviting audience participation.