Thursday, September 20, 2007
Amherst & Amherst College
Daily Hampshire Gazette, Thursday September 20, 2007
College chief calls for growth Amherst president: Woo more business
By KRISTIN PALPINI Staff Writer
AMHERST - For the second year in a row, Amherst College President Anthony W. Marx used his address at the college's community lunch to ask town leaders to support the public school system by bringing in more business.
Economic growth in Amherst brings revenue to the town - and thus better services for residents. To boost the business community, Marx suggested changes in zoning bylaws.
Marx has made this suggestion before.
"We've not gotten as far in a year as we should be," Marx said before an audience of about 60 Amherst Select Board members, school officials, college administrators and media representatives Wednesday afternoon.
Amherst's problem, Marx said, is a lack of revenue. For the past several years, Amherst has had to contend with tight budgets that forced officials to make cuts to community services.
Town Administrator Laurence Shaffer, who was present, agreed with Marx and added that Amherst officials continue to look for new revenue sources.
"It's very good and important to hear this opinion," said Shaffer. "There's no question we have a structural deficit and we need to continue to work hard to change that."
Shaffer said the town is seeking to expand its tax base. Also, the state needs to increase its contribution to Amherst, he said.
State lawmakers reduced financial support to the commonwealth's 351 municipalities in early 2000. Communities across the state are still struggling to rebound from the loss in revenues.
Marx expressed particular concern, as a parent of an Amherst public school student and as an employer, for how the town's lack of funds is affecting the school system.
"Every year I hear the public school administrators saying that the school is now cutting into bone, and that's scary as a parent to hear and it's scary as a business leader to hear because I have to attract people to live here," Marx said.
For years, Marx could trumpet the Amherst public school system to potential employees as a reason for them to take a job at the college and move to town. But with increased cuts to school programs, he said it is becoming harder to make this claim. Over the past several years, the town has had to cut school services, including many of its summer programs, and eliminate jobs to cover the drop in state aid.
"If the school system is in jeopardy, the community is in jeopardy," Marx said.
To bring in additional businesses, Amherst has to change its zoning bylaws, Marx said. Zoning districts should also be changed to allow a mix of residential and commercial establishments in the downtown area. This would usher in a "vibrant" community feeling, he said.
"I worry when I hear people saying, 'If you want to go out to get a good meal and take a walk and feel like you're in an exciting environment, then you drive to Northampton,'" Marx said. "I want Amherst to be more a destination than it is."
Amherst is working on its zoning bylaws. A proposed master plan that features recommendations for denser development, a mix of housing and an improved business climate is due to be presented to the public Sept. 27. The plan is accessible on the town's Web site, www.amherstma.gov.
"He's right. We haven't made any substantial progress in the last year," said Selectman Alisa Brewer, who attended the event. "Zoning is the big thing, but I think we'll see some changes there soon."
Daily Hampshire Gazette © 2007 All rights reserved
College chief calls for growth Amherst president: Woo more business
By KRISTIN PALPINI Staff Writer
AMHERST - For the second year in a row, Amherst College President Anthony W. Marx used his address at the college's community lunch to ask town leaders to support the public school system by bringing in more business.
Economic growth in Amherst brings revenue to the town - and thus better services for residents. To boost the business community, Marx suggested changes in zoning bylaws.
Marx has made this suggestion before.
"We've not gotten as far in a year as we should be," Marx said before an audience of about 60 Amherst Select Board members, school officials, college administrators and media representatives Wednesday afternoon.
Amherst's problem, Marx said, is a lack of revenue. For the past several years, Amherst has had to contend with tight budgets that forced officials to make cuts to community services.
Town Administrator Laurence Shaffer, who was present, agreed with Marx and added that Amherst officials continue to look for new revenue sources.
"It's very good and important to hear this opinion," said Shaffer. "There's no question we have a structural deficit and we need to continue to work hard to change that."
Shaffer said the town is seeking to expand its tax base. Also, the state needs to increase its contribution to Amherst, he said.
State lawmakers reduced financial support to the commonwealth's 351 municipalities in early 2000. Communities across the state are still struggling to rebound from the loss in revenues.
Marx expressed particular concern, as a parent of an Amherst public school student and as an employer, for how the town's lack of funds is affecting the school system.
"Every year I hear the public school administrators saying that the school is now cutting into bone, and that's scary as a parent to hear and it's scary as a business leader to hear because I have to attract people to live here," Marx said.
For years, Marx could trumpet the Amherst public school system to potential employees as a reason for them to take a job at the college and move to town. But with increased cuts to school programs, he said it is becoming harder to make this claim. Over the past several years, the town has had to cut school services, including many of its summer programs, and eliminate jobs to cover the drop in state aid.
"If the school system is in jeopardy, the community is in jeopardy," Marx said.
To bring in additional businesses, Amherst has to change its zoning bylaws, Marx said. Zoning districts should also be changed to allow a mix of residential and commercial establishments in the downtown area. This would usher in a "vibrant" community feeling, he said.
"I worry when I hear people saying, 'If you want to go out to get a good meal and take a walk and feel like you're in an exciting environment, then you drive to Northampton,'" Marx said. "I want Amherst to be more a destination than it is."
Amherst is working on its zoning bylaws. A proposed master plan that features recommendations for denser development, a mix of housing and an improved business climate is due to be presented to the public Sept. 27. The plan is accessible on the town's Web site, www.amherstma.gov.
"He's right. We haven't made any substantial progress in the last year," said Selectman Alisa Brewer, who attended the event. "Zoning is the big thing, but I think we'll see some changes there soon."
Daily Hampshire Gazette © 2007 All rights reserved
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
FY09 Priorities
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 11:58:49 AM
To: Select Board
To the Selectboard:
As you consider guidelines for the Town Manager as he prepares his proposed municipal budget, I would urge you to incorporate the following principles:
1. The municipal budget is one component of the town's total spending plan, and ultimately Town Meeting must determine the right balance among municipal, school, and library expenditures. That is hard to do, because the budget is organized in large, abstract groupings like "public safety" and "elementary schools." Setting the town's priorities requires getting inside those groupings (i.e. the question is not whether we will have public safety or public schools, but rather how much of each). I therefore urge you to ask the Manager to present his recommendations in a way that provides clear programmatic implications for different funding levels. For example, the Manager will recommend a fire budget based on some specified level of staffing per shift. If that represents an increase over current staffing levels, then the Manager should articulate what the difference buys in terms such as response time, number of occasions upon which all firefighters are out on call, and so forth.
If the recommendation reflects a decline in staffing, then that should be expressed in similar terms.
While there is always some attempt to do this, the structure of the budget exercise tends to emphasize numbers over actual impacts. The Manager's budget includes all kinds of data on service levels, but that does not easily translate into a practical sense of what is lost or gained at various budget levels. Often, this kind of context does not get broad discussion until the actual vote at Town Meeting, with a police chief or an LSSE chair trying to articulate the consequences of various budget levels on the fly. If the Manager's budget proposal (particularly the transmittal memo) carefully places the budget numbers in programmatic terms from the beginning, and provides a context for what a higher or lower number means, the process of determining townwide budget priorities by Town Meeting will be greatly assisted.
This cannot be done for every budget area, of course, but usually the budget debate tends to focus on some major questions lending themselves to this kind of treatment. I will make the same suggestion to the library trustees and the school committees.
2. I hope you will ask the Manager to set his priorities in light of the town's obligations vs. its choices. By this I mean that the highest priority should be given to those activities for which the town is legally responsible, vs. those for which town funding is discretionary. My reason for this is simple: it is very important that what the town does, it does well. Taxpayer confidence quickly erodes when we try to spread the butter too thinly, and service levels fall below citizens' expectations. What are these obligations? There is obviously some room for debate, but probably not too much. The town and only the town can provide police and fire protection, discharge the municipal corporation's fiduciary responsibilities to taxpayers and bondholders, satisfy statutory requirements relating to public health, and so forth. It would be very helpful if the Manager annotated his budget recommendation in a way that relates these obligations to actual expenditures.
3. Even in our current financial straits, we still pay for a lot of things that are not legally required. For discretionary expenditures, I hope you will ask the Manager to give the highest priority to activities that fall the closest to the set of services that citizens customarily associate with local government. While not strictly speaking obligations, there are certain kinds of things that people expect from local government, and when they are missing or severely compromised, taxpayer support for the whole municipal enterprise erodes. In many communities, for example, trash collection and recycling are tax-supported activities. That is not an option for us, at least at this point, but it illustrates the kind of expectations that folks may bring to the budget debate, and that may cause them to begin the process somewhat disappointed. Some examples of common expectations might be many aspects of library services (albeit not in the Manager's purview), programs for seniors, and recreation programs for kids. My purpose is not to suggest what the list should be, but to urge that there be clarity in the Manager's budget about what kinds of expectations we are trying (and not trying) to meet.
4. There is a stark asymmetry in public budgeting that I believe you can help address. Some programs and activities, by their nature, have constituencies to support them (because they appeal to some interest on the part of a group of citizens). Others do not, even though they may be very important to the overall success of local government. The myriad "green eyeshade" functions that ensure financial integrity and efficiency might be an example. I hope you will ask the Manager to give special attention to the necessary but unglamorous components of the municipal budget. If the Selectboard is not "the constituency" for these activities, then I do not know who is.
5. You will undoubtedly receive many requests to include one specific program or another in the budget. I hope you will not pass these along, or try to come up with your own list. I hope your guidelines will focus on the reasoning behind and criteria for the decisions the Manager will make, not what outcome you want to see. This seems important for two reasons. First, under our system of government making these recommendations is a central part of the Manager's job, and we should try to support him in that process. Second, the absence of an early and clear focus on criteria and the framework for decision-making is, in my opinion, a weakness of our current system. The Selectboard can make an important contribution by bringing these issues to the forefront before the inevitable haggling over preferences begins.
6. Finally, as part of that framework I hope you will ask the Manager to organize his budget proposal in terms of the most significant challenge facing our community's ability to meet the needs of our citizens now and in the future: broadening the revenue base so as to minimize the reductions in services with which we are currently grappling, and will surely grapple for years to come. Much discussion has already been devoted to this topic, but the Manager's budget must reflect the urgency of that task.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Bryan H
To: Select Board
To the Selectboard:
As you consider guidelines for the Town Manager as he prepares his proposed municipal budget, I would urge you to incorporate the following principles:
1. The municipal budget is one component of the town's total spending plan, and ultimately Town Meeting must determine the right balance among municipal, school, and library expenditures. That is hard to do, because the budget is organized in large, abstract groupings like "public safety" and "elementary schools." Setting the town's priorities requires getting inside those groupings (i.e. the question is not whether we will have public safety or public schools, but rather how much of each). I therefore urge you to ask the Manager to present his recommendations in a way that provides clear programmatic implications for different funding levels. For example, the Manager will recommend a fire budget based on some specified level of staffing per shift. If that represents an increase over current staffing levels, then the Manager should articulate what the difference buys in terms such as response time, number of occasions upon which all firefighters are out on call, and so forth.
If the recommendation reflects a decline in staffing, then that should be expressed in similar terms.
While there is always some attempt to do this, the structure of the budget exercise tends to emphasize numbers over actual impacts. The Manager's budget includes all kinds of data on service levels, but that does not easily translate into a practical sense of what is lost or gained at various budget levels. Often, this kind of context does not get broad discussion until the actual vote at Town Meeting, with a police chief or an LSSE chair trying to articulate the consequences of various budget levels on the fly. If the Manager's budget proposal (particularly the transmittal memo) carefully places the budget numbers in programmatic terms from the beginning, and provides a context for what a higher or lower number means, the process of determining townwide budget priorities by Town Meeting will be greatly assisted.
This cannot be done for every budget area, of course, but usually the budget debate tends to focus on some major questions lending themselves to this kind of treatment. I will make the same suggestion to the library trustees and the school committees.
2. I hope you will ask the Manager to set his priorities in light of the town's obligations vs. its choices. By this I mean that the highest priority should be given to those activities for which the town is legally responsible, vs. those for which town funding is discretionary. My reason for this is simple: it is very important that what the town does, it does well. Taxpayer confidence quickly erodes when we try to spread the butter too thinly, and service levels fall below citizens' expectations. What are these obligations? There is obviously some room for debate, but probably not too much. The town and only the town can provide police and fire protection, discharge the municipal corporation's fiduciary responsibilities to taxpayers and bondholders, satisfy statutory requirements relating to public health, and so forth. It would be very helpful if the Manager annotated his budget recommendation in a way that relates these obligations to actual expenditures.
3. Even in our current financial straits, we still pay for a lot of things that are not legally required. For discretionary expenditures, I hope you will ask the Manager to give the highest priority to activities that fall the closest to the set of services that citizens customarily associate with local government. While not strictly speaking obligations, there are certain kinds of things that people expect from local government, and when they are missing or severely compromised, taxpayer support for the whole municipal enterprise erodes. In many communities, for example, trash collection and recycling are tax-supported activities. That is not an option for us, at least at this point, but it illustrates the kind of expectations that folks may bring to the budget debate, and that may cause them to begin the process somewhat disappointed. Some examples of common expectations might be many aspects of library services (albeit not in the Manager's purview), programs for seniors, and recreation programs for kids. My purpose is not to suggest what the list should be, but to urge that there be clarity in the Manager's budget about what kinds of expectations we are trying (and not trying) to meet.
4. There is a stark asymmetry in public budgeting that I believe you can help address. Some programs and activities, by their nature, have constituencies to support them (because they appeal to some interest on the part of a group of citizens). Others do not, even though they may be very important to the overall success of local government. The myriad "green eyeshade" functions that ensure financial integrity and efficiency might be an example. I hope you will ask the Manager to give special attention to the necessary but unglamorous components of the municipal budget. If the Selectboard is not "the constituency" for these activities, then I do not know who is.
5. You will undoubtedly receive many requests to include one specific program or another in the budget. I hope you will not pass these along, or try to come up with your own list. I hope your guidelines will focus on the reasoning behind and criteria for the decisions the Manager will make, not what outcome you want to see. This seems important for two reasons. First, under our system of government making these recommendations is a central part of the Manager's job, and we should try to support him in that process. Second, the absence of an early and clear focus on criteria and the framework for decision-making is, in my opinion, a weakness of our current system. The Selectboard can make an important contribution by bringing these issues to the forefront before the inevitable haggling over preferences begins.
6. Finally, as part of that framework I hope you will ask the Manager to organize his budget proposal in terms of the most significant challenge facing our community's ability to meet the needs of our citizens now and in the future: broadening the revenue base so as to minimize the reductions in services with which we are currently grappling, and will surely grapple for years to come. Much discussion has already been devoted to this topic, but the Manager's budget must reflect the urgency of that task.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Bryan H
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