Innovate, Innovate
After listening to Warren Shaw on WCAP 980 yesterday morning and then reading Jackie’s post about the budget blues, I have to wonder what suggestions Mr. Shaw would have for the school committee. All he seemed to say while “sticking up for the little guy” was that governments should “innovate” rather than raise taxes (he was protesting the 2% meals tax). Teddy Panos pointed out some innovative things already being done by the school committee – closing a school, moving the school department out of the Bon Marche building, etc, but Mr. Shaw was not impressed. (To Panos’ list, I would add the school department’s creation of a model Teachers’ Academy that is now marketed to other districts, its development of internal programs to reduce out-of-district tuition, and its efforts at more efficient transportation, including regionalization.) Mr. Shaw, however, seems to ignore these successes and prefers to take the position that the cost of running our cities and towns should never go up except under extreme circumstances, at which time he would allow some emergency tax hikes that would then expire after a set term. So, let’s imagine for a moment if the city budget was level funded year after year. In the meantime, the cost of utilities, building maintenance and especially healthcare would continue to rise. To maintain level funding, city workers, teachers, programs and services would be whittled away, which is exactly what’s happening now and has been happening in the schools since 2003. If you ask me, this approach to running our city is more harmful to the “little guy” than a 2% meals tax.