Recycle Fee is a Tax
To the residents of Fairhaven. By now some if not all have heard the Town Administrator is imposing a new Recycle Fee on the 7000 homes in Town of a $100.00. This new TAX which forever was covered by the general fund to pay for recycle is to cover some of the deficit looming in the budget. The TA has put pressure on either the Board of Health or Board of Public Works boards to vote for this. Clearly she does not want to be the bad guy here and using others as the scape goat.
Last year was a $400k override that failed. Now the new $700k TAX on recycle. I am hearing the budget shortfall is close to 1.4 million!!!! Obviously the TA’S operating skills in a fiscal budget are lacking putting it politely. However, this is clearly typical of a manager who does not know how to balance a budget except by raising TAXES.
The current Select Board is spineless in making difficult decisions and frankly is worse now that there are 5 of them. They could easily step in and say this is the wrong approach to covering the deficit. Here are just a few ideas that should be implemented immediately as difficult as they are until the decision makers can control spending. Surely the Town does not have an income problem just a spending one.
1) Suspend all capital expenditures for fiscal 2025
2) Have each department head come up with a plan to streamline each department for expense savings.
3) Review all expenses with vendors across the board to find savings.
Difficult decisions that will challenge everyone to think outside the box but it’s doable with an effective leader. What I have seen on the financial side of the equation the current TA lacks this skill set.
Steve Riley, Fairhaven
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