-Positions and Platform
MY PLATFORM REFLECTING WHAT THE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN TELLING ME ARE THEIR CHIEF CONCERNS
I am not ranking in any order of importance the following particular concerns I am finding during this campaign. Nor is this list of our higher priority concerns at this point in time unlikely to change over the next three years. For instance, should most if not all of our troops return from Iraq during the next three years, Brookline’s budget for veterans services probably will need to be increased dramatically.
(a) Sustain ample education funding
(b) At the Senior Center, rationalize vehicular parking and traffic pattern to enhance safe passage, adjust nearby parking regulations, especially for the handicapped, and try to acquire more and closer parking for all.
(c) Enhance Transparency and Trust in Brookline government.
To avoid distrust of the integrity of our proceedings, there should be no appearance that endorsing associations, other special interests, campaign contributors, PACs or particular businesses, individuals and/or their attorneys receive preferential treatment. The public must feel confident that the Selectmen and other agencies of the Town operate without conflict of interest and openly. To paraphrase President Woodrow Wilson’s assurance to our defeated enemies following World War 1, we must make “open decisions openly arrived at.”
(i) I am a practicing lawyer. I pledge that neither I nor any associate in my practice will represent clients before Town boards, commissions , or other Town agencies if I win the open term on the Board of Selectmen I further pledge that I shall vigorously advocate to increase the number of years when former Selectmen refrain from representing such clients after leaving the Board.
(d) Environmental protection and improvement, including Gateway East, open space for passive and active recreation, and preservation of neighborhood values and historic structures. For further details, please see the “Page” on this site titled “Open space funding is important for our future”: http://juleslevine.wordpress.com/open-space-funding-is-important-for-our-future
e) Taxes, fees, fines, the Town’s annual budgets and a possible override during the new Selectman’s three year term.
Budget cuts should be made when expenditures otherwise exceed revenues. Some assume that in 2008 Brookline’s revenues will remain about what they have been recently, while expenditures will rise. (A possible tax override is only being considered for the 2009 year and beyond.) But our 2008 revenues may significantly exceed our 2006-2007 revenues. Over the last dozen years from time to time it has been forecast in one year that in the next year significant budget cuts would be required. It has turned out that unanticipated revenues from traditional sources have materialized and saved us from budget cuts. The same thing may happen before or during 2008.
Furthermore, Governor Deval Patrick, for whose election I vigorously campaigned, has wisely called for the Legislature to appropriate for 2008 greater local and school aid than now anticipated and at the same time to create a corresponding, and roughly compensating, new source of revenue, namely, local taxes on hotel rooms, restaurant meals, and utility poles and cables on public property.
However, if these new revenues, or/and unexpected increases in the old ones, do not materialize to a sufficient extent, we will need budget cuts. My three cuts would be to reduce the DPW’s budget moderately and to defer to a degree both the upkeep of town property and the ongoing $16 million renovation of Town Hall. I very sincerely hope that these cuts will be temporary, and enough to safeguard our acclaimed schools and other town services.
I have set forth my present thinking on these financial matters, which may impact all of us very seriously, in several previous statements:
Please see
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(f) Growth of jobs and the economy.
(g) Human relations, health, fire, police, library, education, senior, housing, and human services.
(h) Traffic and parking.
(i) Rooting out the corrosive or illegitimate influence of big or outside money, especially from developers, on our government.
No private funding of Brookline’s local elections is my destination. Until that goal is attainable, campaign contributions should be limited to amounts which are so small as not to influence, or to be seen as possibly influencing, official action.
