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Dear Editor:
About 2 weeks ago I learned that Reading has an additional ballot question for the November 3rd elections. The Town is asking for a $6.5 million dollar budget override to balance the town budget. When the Killam school and ReCALS projects were being presented to the town, it was stated that no additional overrides would be needed to fund these projects. I feel like I’ve been lied to by the Select Board.
The last time a budget override request was funded was about 8 years ago when a $4.5 million dollar override was approved by the electorate to cover school costs. At that time we were threatened with teacher layoffs if the override was not approved. We are again being threatened with teacher layoffs if the current budget override is not approved. Hopefully the RTA will challenge that if the override fails to pass and teachers are laid off.
Regardless of whether this override is necessary or not, this ballot question has only been widely known for a couple weeks. This is last minute politics. Scare people into voting for the override at the last minute without providing timely information to the public. The Select Board voted to put this question on the ballot during the summer, on July 28th. I doubt many people were paying attention at that time. I certainly wasn’t; I had other summer activities going on. In fact, the Reading Observer has only recently published notes and information about the override. All of these actions occurred between June 25th and Sept. 30th, but information relating to the ballot questions only became widely known within the past 2 weeks. Last minute politics.
And now, I’ve found out within the past week that there is an 11th ballot question for the Community Preservation Act. This came as a flier hung on my door. Why is it that I am only hearing about that now. Last minute politics!
My property taxes increased by 25% for the current tax year, largely due to the Killam and ReCALs projects. We were assured that taxes would not increase so much when the Killam and ReCALS projects were presented. Now the Town wants a huge override to balance their budget for FY2028 (which starts next July). The Town has estimated that individual household property taxes will increase ~$737 / year (Reading’s Override FAQ 2026;). This is about the same level we were asked for to support the Killam and ReCALS projects. That’s another ~10% tax increase that is not due to debt reduction, which means it’s permanent. I have no idea how much the CP act will add to my property taxes if passed.
I do not care whether the Iran war has increased costs for everything under the sun; if the Select Board can’t manage the budget without raising taxes, then cut programs, or scale them back. Don’t hire more people for programs that we don’t need.
Finally, I have this to say about the current override: “Fool me once, shame on thee; fool me twice, shame on me”.
I am NOT voting for this.
Joseph White
Reading, MA
