Rep. Day On Wrong Side Of State Bond Bill

A Letter to the Editor from Paul Demerjian (revised at 2:25 Wednesday):

I am concerned about State Representative Michael Day's press release from his office which discusses a staggering $2 billion borrowing bond bill. I see this bond bill as contradictory for Day and his siders on the Stoneham Select Board. Day should not tout his borrowing bill but almost apologize for it, and here's why:

About a month ago, Day’s opponent Caroline Colarusso drafted a warrant article to return $1.1 million out of $3.4 million in accumulated free cash directly back to Stoneham taxpayers. In other words, Stoneham residents were overtaxed and Colarusso was trying to make it right. Day's backers at the May 7th Town Meeting stressed Stoneham's bond rating would be jeopardized if the trash fee was waived. Their argument was the need to protect our bond rating by building up our rainy day fund.

Yet one year ago, the Commonwealth’s bond rating was dropped because our representatives failed to properly maintain our rainy day fund. S&P cited, "the commonwealth's failure to follow through on rebuilding its reserves as stipulated through its own fiscal policies aimed at mitigating the state's propensity for revenue volatility". Fast forwarding one year to today, Mr. Day votes to float more bonds.

At the state level I would rather Representative Day tell us he cut expenses to help balance the budget and out of that effort brought home some savings. That is something about which we would all get excited. At the Town level I would rather Mr. Day and the Select Board majority voted with Colarusso to return the townspeople their hard-earned monies - especially when the over collection was intended solely to get us through the recession. Many of our residents are living on a fixed income and a trash fee holiday certainly would have provided some financial relief.

Anyone with reasonable credit can borrow money. However if the state has no choice but to borrow in good times, plan to write an even bigger check when our economy slows down.

The Day-backed Select Board majority will gladly accept the bond money *if* the Senate passes it, but most likely will have a hard time justifying it with our state's declining bond rating.

Paul Demerjian, Blueberry Lane, Stoneham