Candidate O'Neil chimes in on taxes, the budget and Dr. Teehan's misunderstanding about his plan for a residential exemption.

   Good evening. I'd like to chime in about taxes after reading my worthy opponent Dennis Teehan's take. I think he misunderstands my plan for a residential exemption. This is not a state request. The City of Boston and many other towns and cities have voted to have this and given it to their citizens that owner occupy their homes. This is for every home owner not select home owners or just senior citizens. There is a state exemption individuals can apply for to receive an abatement. This is not what I'm proposing. You all deserve better than this and I do plan to propose this, but the issue of the budget needs to come first. We did have 850,000 not 750,000 come off the Debt Service as East Street Phase 2 and the SMA development come off after FY' 2014.

Here is is the link to my explanation of why I want the exemption:
http://dedham.patch.com/groups/letters-to-the-editor/p/why-i-would-propose-a-residential-exemption-a...

   There has been no transparency in our budget in three years. Nobody has seen a budget that shows not only a departments budget, but also where the money is allocated by line item. For three years our town has been complacent and they have not shared this information. During the Bill Keegan era as Town Administrator we did seven major projects that personally I felt we over spent on and now 12 years later taxes have increased nearly 80%. Right now a residential exemption as I said before is a band-aid solution to a much bigger problem.
   I saw Bill Keegans' presentation at FinCom. I was the only candidate that attended last Saturday. I'm well aware of the situation with health insurance for our town workers. Yes Blue Cross Blue Shield has seen a huge increase. I feel a more affordable solution is for the Town to join the Group Insurance Commission as a municipal member. As a Commonwealth employee I have been fortunate to have affordable health insurance. GIC offers a wealth of options that could save our town money and could be a great asset that we should explore.
   As I've said many times, the first step is too look at the budget. Let's see where we may have potential waste and let's see where we can come up with more cost effective solutions to some of these line items. The problem is we haven't seen a complete budget with line items in 3 years so we have no real idea where that money has gone and this idea of not wanting to do more harm then good is not an answer or a solution. I think almost 80% and probably will be over 80% in 13 years is enough harm to us the taxpayers. I think it's time we did some good. Our town needs a voice. Someone that won't just go along with business as usual. I will question what has gone on the last three years and find out where your hard earned money went and then I will work with the board to come to a solution on this budget. If we have the Reyes fund to do the Municipal Campus project and future municipal projects and we don't have to tax the citizens then the debt service shouldn't increase and we should be able to level taxes off for FY 2016. 
   I am asking for one of your two votes on April 12th. If you don't want more of the same I am your candidate. Thank you.