Why are there not dollar amounts stated in Questions 2 and 3?

But the dollar amount will be limited by the Department of Revenue. The city won't be able to tax any more than they are asking for today for questions 2 and 3.

At some point in the process, and certainly well before MSBA is willing to fork money over to newton, the two parties will agree on a total price, and from then on, all efforts are geared toward keeping the project within that budget. And MSBA has ample control over making sure that happens. And MSBA has demonstrated in other projects a willingness to do just that. [Too bad they weren't involved in the NNHS fiasco.]

I think that Joe's video has to be tempered by the fact that the value of 2 family houses rose much faster than single family homes in Newton. That's a good thing for owners of two families like Joe (and me). The overall property tax for the city rose by 2.5% in his time frame but more of the burden shifted to the sought after multi-families.

So if you are a multi-family owner, your taxes went up like Joe's but the value of your property went up a huge amount which brought pretty handsome return on the original investment.

Largely because Newton is so attractive to prospective home buyers.

2.5% annually!

2 family homes took a big dip after the banking bust of 2007+. Values are starting to come back, but many multi-family homes in Newton have been converted to condominiums...

Newton just automatically raised our property taxes 2.5% - WE HAD NO CHOICE
Newton is charging us .75% meals tax – WE HAD NO CHOICE
Social Security (FICA) tax increased from 4.2% to 6.2% - WE HAD NO CHOICE
Deval Patrick proposes raising income tax to 6.25% - WE HAVE NO CHOICE
Deval Patrick proposes DOUBLING gas tax - WE HAVE NO CHOICE
Deval Patrick proposes raising tolls 5% - WE HAVE NO CHOICE
Deval Patrick proposes raising registry fees 10% - WE HAVE NO CHOICE
MBTA raised fares 23% last year – WE HAD NO CHOICE
MBTA proposing additional 33% increase this year – WE HAVE NO CHOICE
MA Health Insurers announce 6% - 12% rate increase this year – WE HAVE NO CHOICE

EVER NOTICE NONE OF THESE INCREASES EVER REALLY SOLVES THE PROBLEM?

EVERY YEAR IT IS JUST MORE AND MORE…

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH – WE HAVE A CHOICE – VOTE NO

On the contrary, this is a problem solving override:

- Buildings get fixed big time: Angier, Cabot, Zervas (adds space too), Newton Centre fire station
- Our schools get the tools to handle the huge wave of incoming students
* modulars at Bowen, Mason Rice, Burr, Horace Mann
* teachers for the added 800 students
- Our roads get an injection of $1M in added repairs to improve them from poor to average
- We get added police to improve city safety

This money is not going down some black hole. Big, long term problems are going to be solved.

It also sets us up to keep on solving other problems, within our operating budget, as we have done for the past 3 years.

- We saved $180M over the next 6 years by settling all contracts within the 2.5% Prop 2 1/2 increase
- We saved $1M/year by reorganizing the NPS food service
- We saved $2M/year and counting by reorganizing SPED services to be more effective
- We are renovating Carr, expanding Day and setting up to consolidate the pre-K into one location and move the Newton Cultural Center into a new home

We will see enormous progress on all fronts if we get to YES on the 3 override questions.

Vote YES x 3 on March 12th!

A YES vote x 3 is likely the best investment anyone in Newton will make this year.

Janet,

Here are my 2 family assessments and Joe's. Notice the big jumps in 2002 (45% for Joe) and 2005 (20% for Joe) due to the increased value of 2 families

That's why 2 familiy property taxes have gone up faster than others.

Mine
FY 2013 $730,400
FY 2012 $730,400
FY 2011 $738,700
FY 2010 $753,800
FY 2009 $793,500
FY 2008 $793,500
FY 2007 $776,600
FY 2006 $754,000
FY 2005 $732,000
FY 2004 $609,200
FY 2003 $534,400
FY 2002 $534,400
FY 2001 $442,100
FY 2000 $403,700

Joe Amatucci
FY 2013 $615,600
FY 2012 $615,700
FY 2011 $640,000
FY 2010 $653,100
FY 2009 $687,500
FY 2008 $687,500
FY 2007 $648,800
FY 2006 $629,900
FY 2005 $611,600
FY 2004 $514,400
FY 2003 $451,200
FY 2002 $451,200
FY 2001 $329,000
FY 2000 $300,500

If we discontinue the METCO program that will free up 500+ SEATS for our Newton students without the need for building more space. The strategy of using the METCO funds to shore up our budget has backfired, and now we are paying for it. Sure, this is a nice shot in the arm of money, but at what cost; classroom sizes are up, behavioral and family issues/distractions are de-focusing teachers, increased need to hire social workers and psychologists, this is out of control, ask any teacher.

Between METCO, Teachers Kids and other programs for non-resident kids, this results in 538 non-resident kids in our schools. We get full reimbursement for four kids. We get partial reimbursement for the rest. But we think METCO Incorporated said it best when it said "A school district's participation in the Metco Program is voluntary. A school district could join the Metco Program at any time by getting initial approval from its school committee and by contacting the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. However, given the low reimbursement and the present level funding of the program, it is unclear exactly how a school district could join without additional overall funding to the program itself.

Eliminating METCO would save us just $500K, so it would not affect the need for the operating override.

Also, roughly 200 are in the middle schools and high schools where we have sufficient capacity, so they are not a space issue factor there.

In the elementary schools, the capacity of each school varies enormously, with Ward, Underwood and Peirce with spare capacity, but Countryside and Bowen at or beyond their limits. METCO children have always been placed in elementary schools where they won't trigger additional teaching staff or classrooms, so if they were removed from the elementary schools, we would save neither on teachers nor space. It's entirely because we can place them where we wish. We cannot do that for the general incoming population.

So removing the 400 METCO students would save us $500K but have almost no impact on the staff we need and the space we need.

I will repeat my METCO estimates here:

DETAILS OF MY METCO ESTIMATE:

With the NO guys claiming METCO costs us $7M annually, I thought it useful to PROVIDE my latest estimate of METCO costs, with the caveat that this is rough and we really should do a review, which is what the CAG we recommended we do in 2013.

Here’s my latest arithmetic.

From the FY13 budget book on p. 14 the costs are shown for adding 192 students to NPS.

One can take the detailed numbers and remove:

- The elementary teachers and support staff, as the METCO kids never force additional teachers or staff, in elementary (that’s part of the calculus NPS is employing right now)
- Out of district SPED costs: tuition + transportation
- Modular costs

But leave in all support for SPED, and ELL and teachers for middle and high school.

Then the cost per student added is $5,600. So 400 METCO students cost us $2,240,000.

Then we get about $2.1M from METCO, of which $700K is transportation and about $100K for admin staff. That gives NPS $1.3M.
The we get $1K per student from the state through Chapter 70, which gets us a further $400K.

So offsetting that $1.7M against our cost reduces our cost to $540K. TheN we actually get IDEA money for SPED support plus Title 1 money for METCO kids who qualify in our Title 1 schools such as Lincoln Eliot.

So my estimate of $500K is pretty solid. And is accompanied by the precise model used.

The METCO burden is so much more than financial. It is the time and headache overhead, the distractions, the increased class sizes, the bus coordination, teachers who cannot get in touch with the parents, not enough teacher aids, not enough social workers, not enough psychiatrists, increased meals/lunch effort, the list goes on and on.. Seriously, ask any teacher what percent of their day they spend on behavioral/social/family issues, vs teaching. You would be shocked! Why are we taking on this responsibility when we cannot even manage our own problems? We have a duty to get our house in order first, before solving out of town student needs.

Why is it so hard for MNF to do the homework? Check my analysis instead of moving onto other hand waving.

Tell me where I am wrong. It takes just a few minutes to do this.

My point is that METCO kids don't trigger additional elementary teachers. Other kids do. It's that simple.

From the 12/14/2009 report to the SC when Jim Marini was interim superintendent:

"The policies and guidelines that govern the administration of the METCO program are designed to minimize potential costs to the school system. Specifically:

1. METCO students enter the Newton schools in Grades K, 1, and 2. They are only placed in classrooms with available seats. No METCO students would be added to a school's roster if it would require the system to hire an additional teacher. The wide distribution of students (see attached chart: METCO Placements by Grade) throughout the school system minimizes any need to add specialists as well.

2. If a METCO student with special needs requires an out of district placement, that student's placement is handled and funded by the Boston Public Schools.

You have made no such demonstration. The costing of the override is based on an incremental cost model. With your math, the override ask would be $11M more.
I have used the same incremental model to estimate METCO costs as was used to set the educational component of the operating override at $4.5M.

You have the use a consistent model or your numbers have no meaning.

David Cohen would be amused to think of me as part of his regime. That's a first!

We cannot have a rational debate when your numbers are anchored to nothing solid. My numbers are anchored to p.14 of the FY13 budget book:

http://www3.newton.k12.ma.us/sites/default/files/school_committee/documentsFY13/superintendent%27s_fy13_budget_book.pdf

Take a look there and you'll see the incremental cost model in action. Then you can tell me where, specifically, my numbers are wrong.

"David Cohen would be amused to think of me as part of his regime." Last we checked, you, Claire and Jonathan began serving under Mayor David Cohen and last we checked, the 2008 override happened while you were all providing loyal service to the Cohen regime.

"Take a look there and you'll see the incremental cost model in action. Then you can tell me where, specifically, my numbers are wrong." Because we're being asked to pay $9.2M/year in extra taxes for new teachers, new buildings and other school department related projects and programs to accommodate 865 new Newton kids on top of the 3% spending increase the schools have pulled down from 2010 to 2013.

Even if these three extravagantly expensive overrides fail, we expect Newton to increase its school system spending by 3% CAGR from 2013-2018

Last we checked, the 2008 override didn't actually happen. And BTW - SC members are elected independently, not as some sort of "mayoral slate". If you think Geoff Epstein was a Cohen loyalist, you really are new to Newton politics.

I have never provided loyal service to anyone except the kids in Newton.

They are they only ones who matter to me in the final analysis.

That's why I take the positions I do and put so much energy into the effort.

We have 12,000 kids who cannot vote. They need a voice in this campaign.

Shall we invest in them or make them pay for the mistakes of adults?

Geoff, we appreciate the sales job. If you really cared about the 12K kids who can't vote, you and your boss Claire Sokoloff would be on the phone with Boston to insist on a $7.5/year annual payment for educating Boston kids in Newton Public Schools. Think of all the schools we could build with that money! And it would be... for the children!

Really and Geoff, last we checked, Mayor David Cohen and Geoff Epstein were Democrats, as is the rest of the school committee and 22 of our 23 Aldermen.

We've had nearly 20 years of one party dominance by tax and spend Fabian Socialists from the Democrat Party and it appears that our fiscal chickens have come home to roost.

"Shall we invest in them or make them pay for the mistakes of adults?"
How does spending $61K/year on janitors equate with investing in children?

How does paying a portion of the salary of the Teachers Union President equate with investing in children?

It's time to take the money from elsewhere (lavish pay for city workers) and use the money from elsewhere to invest in our children. That is what we call Moving Newton Forward with Fiscal Responsibility.

" Investing" in the kids (which is the total GUILT argument for these overrides), means handing over more money to government officials to SPEND as they see fit. How about closing City Hall one day per week? (Keep only specific services like Inspectional Services open). Can't the planning department run at 32 hrs per week? How about closing the library on Sundays? Sheesh... How about some out of the box thinking? How much more do we have to pour out??

I disagree with Janet on the override issue (and probably many other issues) but I respect the fact that she clearly makes up her own mind and is not beholden to party or group - another independent thinker. MNF, on the other hand, must not be full of "independent thinkers" - not if they believe that all Democrats are the same (bad). I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume they must also believe that all Republicans are the same (good). Or is that just Joshua Norman's view? It's getting hard to tell,

Ain't got no boss!

This person 'Really' is REALLY annoying me by not disclosing who they are...

The fact that you've criticized *4* members of the Republican party - with more childish name-calling - at some other time in some other forum is somehow proof of your open-mindedness? I don't belong to either party, so I really don't care. You end up "pissing off both sides" because you can't seem to articulate your arguments without resorting to nasty talk-radio catch-phrases and childish name-calling. BTW - a troll is someone who posts inflammatory messages simply to provoke others, without really caring about the issue. People here care about this issue - we all live here, some of us own property here, some of us work here, some of us have kids who go to these schools. Referring to anyone who disagrees with you as a "troll" just further weakens your argument.

OMG - that comment is so undeserving of a legitimate response...

How come 18,000 dollars a year is not enough for one household property tax?

Wow! What property is that?

Someone who's home is assessed at $1.5M which is not unusual in Newton!