REPOST: Selectman Candidate Teehan's Thoughts On Dedham's Tax Rate

I have been reviewing the budget and I have some thoughts about taxes that I want to share with Dedham Patch readers. 

  While out campaigning I have met more than a thousand Dedham residents in the past 8 weeks and knocked on hundred and hundreds of doors. By far the issue I hear the most about is our residential and commercial tax rates.  I first want to let the citizens know that I am hearing your voice:  You want answers and action on taxes. I am committed to providing them and taking reasonable action to improve this situation.

 I want to be clear about one thing: I have been studying this issue extensively and the reality is there are NO easy answers for our tax situation.   The high tax rate is not something that happened overnight but instead is the manifestation of a long process that extends several generations back.  Similarly it is not going to be fixed overnight.   There are too many factors at stake and too much at play to make or expect quick fix solutions.

As a physician I often encourage patients struggling with a difficult problem to begin the challenge by setting a reasonable first goal.  For example, a person who needs to lose 100 lbs. should start by trying to lose 5 or 10.   I think a similar approach is best regarding our taxes.

For the town's tax situation I believe a reasonable first goal is to stop or at least minimize tax increases this year.   We as a town must be careful not to act drastically which will end up costing more money in the long term. Above all we do NOT want to take any action that is going to damage our schools, which account for the largest expense in our current budget.

Citizens should know that the current town budget as proposed calls for a small but definite increase in tax rate.    The good news in this situation is  I believe there are reasonable steps that the town can take to meet a reasonable goal of limiting or stopping tax increases.  Here are a few:

(1) Dedham's capital improvement budget is increasing 32% this year from last year.   I am sure all of us who own homes would love to be able to spend 32% more this year to fix up many, many things on our own personal properties.  The reality is we all have to live in a budget and the same should be true for our town.  I support current selectman Carmen Dello Iacono's suggestion that we limit capital expenditures to a fixed amount or percentage every year.  The town should not have carte blanche to take more money from it's citizens based on it's year to year wants.  Like every citizen the town should be making a budget for such expenditures and sticking to it except for in truly extenuating circumstances (like when not spending would only lead to further cost later) .

(2) Health Care Costs for town employees are skyrocketing (as they are everywhere in the United States).  The cost of Blue Cross Blue Shield for the town employees increased 17% this year.  The town may  need to investigate other high quality health insurance products for it's employees as a way of containing costs.  At my own medical practice, our company president recently switched us all from BCBS to Fallon.   It was something he did not want to do, but he had to do to keep our company sustainable and limit costs.  Our town may have to make similar tough, less than ideal decisions to control costs. We simply can not always pass the buck onto the taxpayers and not make tough decisions.  That is not what taxation is for.

(3).  The state offers a residential tax exemption program for senior citizens, the blind and the disabled.    It is an idea worthy of discussion  to help our neediest families and senior citizens.  I do not support a large scale exemption provided by the town similar to the City of Boston because it would result in a sudden drastic reduction in the budget for our schools and town services.

(4)   We fund a large percentage of our own budget.  We have great people working with us in state government, who I have supported personally and politically and still do.   Mike Rush and Paul McMurtry are GREAT assets for our town.  We should all be working together to explore any increase in state aid if possible, because even a small amount of increase could at least help "stop the bleeding" on our tax increases.   They have shown a GREAT track record of bringing resources to our district.

(5) The town's debt service is coming down.  This year's debt service comes down approximately $850,000.  We should continue to use the Robin Reyes fund to support improvement projects and limit further debt exclusions.  The town could even consider raising the 0.75% meals tax to an even 1.00% if possible to increase revenues. 

(6)   The town currently charges a 6% hotel tax on all rooms.  Historically 2% of this has gone to the Robin Reyes Fund and 4% to the Town Budget.   This year there is a proposal to change that to 3% and 3%, meaning that under the proposed budget less money will go to the town budget and more to the Reyes fund.  I support the idea of doing all we can to finance the Reyes fund, because long term that will save us money.  Perhaps a full extra 1% is too much however.   We may need to change that to 2.5% to the Reyes fund and 3.5% to the Budget.