a dog-eared town

Why should we let the little things like rules in our way. Just because the people have spoken repeatedly and we haven’t gotten our way, let’s change the rules so we can get our way.

That about sums up how some legislators feel when it comes to spending tax payer money.

Marlborough residents have voted eight times in recent years on whether or not to build a new school for its elementary and middle school students.

Each time, the proposal has won a simple majority but failed to win the two-thirds majority required by state law for traditional election towns to issue big ticket bonds.

Last time, the proposal lost by a single vote, and Marlborough residents are set to reconsider the issue on April 8.

Ok. So the law makes it tough for large spending to occur.

Why is is, that’s a bad thing?

I know not every democrat is a tax and spend liberal, but it seems like that when the only way to get more spending passed in a town is to change the rules.

Sponsored by Sen. Molly M. Kelly, D-Keene, Senate Bill 479 would change the percentage of votes required for passage of school bonds for traditional town meeting districts from two-thirds to three-fifths - or from roughly 67 to 60 percent.

And that’s the fundamental difference, it seems, between how I see town spending and how Sen Kelly sees it. I believe it should be difficult for a town to in debt for millions of dollars without proving overwhelmingly to the tax payers, why it’s a good idea. Having to get 2/3 of the voters to agree on something would should that the tax payers believe it’s a good idea.

Hey, your lost your vote by a couple of people. That’s the breaks. Maybe next time you should get more organized. Or maybe you should have done something to help people understand why the extra spending and more taxes are needed.

You shouldn’t change the rules.

It smacks of all the things wrong with big government and machines. I mean, you only have to look at the carnival that is the Massachusetts legislature to see that, when the speaker doens’t get his way, he just twists some arms or changes the rules. That’s what morally corrupt people do to others. They change the rules because they don’t like the rules and don’t want to act in accordance with them.

Hey legislators and town selectmen, you want more spending? Prove why it’s really a good idea to take more of the tax payers money. Don’t change the rules though.