Government

Assessor’s Tax Presentation Has Good News for Some, Increases for Most

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The preliminary report on next year’s property taxes shows an increase of more than 5 percent for homeowners, but a change in the way the commercial rate is figured will result in a smaller increase than expected for some commercial properties. Town Assessor Francis Golden will be presenting the Fiscal 2017 Property Tax Classification Hearing at the Town Council meeting on at 7:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9. If the same residential exemption and Commercial/Industrial and Personal Property (CIP) shift is adopted, the rate will be $13.70 per $1,000 of assessed value. This would result in a bill of $5,336 on the average owner-occupied residential property (worth $547,540), which is an increase of $267 or 5.27 percent.

Elections

LETTER: Watertown Can Benefit from CPA, Like Its Neighbors Have

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To the Editor:

I hope Watertown voters will vote yes on Question Five to join the 161 other Massachusetts Communities, including our abutting neighbors in Waltham, Belmont, Newton and Cambridge, that have adopted the CPA. Watertown residents have contributed over $2 million to this fund for more than the past 12 years and have helped lots of other communities. While I like these other towns and cities, and in fact I represented all or part of every one of the above listed communities in the legislature, I would like to see Watertown benefit like other communities have! In fact, the CPA has been so successful that NOT ONE community out of 161 has ever repealed it. There is a cost of approximately ten dollars per month for the average homeowner, with exemptions for low and moderate income folks, but the state provides matching fund of varying percentages thereby making it a good deal for communities.

Community Preservation Act

LETTER: Areas Covered by CPA Should be Covered by Town Budget, Not More Taxes

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Fellow Watertown residents please don’t fall for this ballot question #5. The CPA is a bad deal for all of us and will leave the town in future debt that will limit progress for the future. I do not see any great need for taking on the liability of this tax increase. Most “open space” upgrades and projects to rehabilitate or restore historic buildings should be achieved within the community and leveraging businesses to help or selling off under utilized property. The money the state potentially matches IS NOT ‘found money.’ This can change at any time under many circumstances and the town is then on it’s own to supplement that expense through bonds with interest or additional taxes or fees.

Community Preservation Act

OP-ED: Questions for Campaigners Knocking On Your Door This Election Season

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To paraphrase Sir Paul McCartney: Someone’s knocking at the door, somebody’s ringing the bell – do yourself a favor, ask them some hard questions, and don’t let the CPA in. Over the past few weeks CPA (Question #5) proponents have been knocking on our doors, dropping their expensive literature, and trying to persuade us to adopt an unwarranted 2% surcharge tax to fund yet to be determined projects. I’ve received several phone calls and emails questioning the “information” being disseminated. Sadly, the said information is deceptive, distorted, laden with half-truths, and even outright bold faced lies. So when CPA Proponents knock at your door ask them the following.

Early Voting

Early Voting is a Big Hit in Watertown, Still Time to Take Advantage

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After the first two days it was 890. On Friday it was over 2,000. And by the end of Tuesday night – day seven – 3,490 Watertown residents had cast their vote during the early voting period. This is the first election where early voting has been an option for Massachusetts voters and Watertown residents have flocked to Town Hall to take advantage. “This is the first time for the Commonwealth, so we didn’t have anything to judge it by,” said Watertown Town Clerk John Flynn.

Community Preservation Act

LETTER: Now is the Time to All Pitch in to Preserve, Improve Watertown

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To the Editor:

It’s time for Watertown to recognize that we need to do more to create affordable housing, educate our kids for the present and future, maintain and improve our public parks and other recreational spaces, and preserve the heritage of old Watertown that’s getting destroyed. The pressures on us from commercial development and economic forces much bigger than our town or state make it necessary for us all to pitch in to keep Watertown an attractive place for young and old, families and individuals. The Town administration has done an exceptional job at keeping our tax rate well below the state average, but that discipline has come at a major cost. As a community we haven’t had the wherewithal to deal with the changes washing over us. We can’t afford to dream about how cities and towns ought to be funded while ignoring the realities of how the system now works and how to make the most of it.

Community Preservation Act

LETTER: CPA Could Bring New Life to Old Buildings in Poor Shape

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In addition to some anti-CPA letters, the October 28 edition of the TAB also contained the glossy supplement Lens which included the article “Renovation and Innovation.” The piece showed how Bridgewater has restored and updated several historic buildings in ways that now save the town money, energy, and staff time as well as preserving examples of their history — a project partially funded by their CPA. Creative solutions like that are what we at the Historical Society of Watertown have suggested when talking about Orchard House and the Schick House (houses we do not own and over which we have no control). They represent the type of buildings that could be restored and converted to use as office space for some small business or organization. The Schick House could even become a bed and breakfast. Using CPA funds for that sort of project, besides preserving historic architecture, would create useful space for small businesses that generate taxes and provide jobs.

Elections

Groups For and Against Question 5 – the CPA – Make Their Cases

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The election is a week away, and the debate over whether Watertown should adopt the Community Preservation Act – the CPA – continues to rage. 

Watertown News invited the supporters and opposition of the CPA on the town ballot to state their case for why voters should vote “Yes” or “No” on Question #5. Invest in Watertown, which proposed the Ballot Question, got 1,000 words, and the two groups publicly opposing the CPA – the Concerned Watertown Homeowners and Watertown Strong Schools – each got 500 words. Read their statements by clicking the title below:
Yes on 5: Invest in Watertown Supports Passing Community Preservation Act
No on 5: Concerned Homeowners, Watertown Strong Schools Oppose CPA
Also, find out more about the details of the CPA by clicking here.