Getting involved can work out

Friday, February 3, 2012

A lesson this week on the importance of public involvement in local government comes from Roy Stewart, president of the Bedford Taxpayers Association. Because of his proposal during a public hearing on the Town Council’s proposed budget, the Council decided to put $100,000 into the town’s Fund Balance Reserve rather than the $300,000 it had originally planned.

All the details of what this means, a description of the Fund Balance Reserve, Stewart’s involvement, and more, was detailed in last week’s Journal by our Maryalice Gill, so we won’t revisit that here (it can also be found at www.cabinet.com; click on Bedford Journal). Suffice it to say that two good things, at least, came out of this, and we’re not talking about the decision that saved six cents on the tax rate, although that’s good too.

We refer to the fact that Stewart took seriously his civic responsibility and spoke his mind, and that the Town Council listened carefully, decided he had a good point, and reacted positively to that point. You can’t ask for more than that when it comes to municipal government.

In a nutshell, the budget proposed by the council will increase the town’s tax rate by 11 cents, after being recalculated over the past week. That will cost you, if you own a home assessed at $300,000, about $30 extra this year. Not much, in the big picture. Oh, yes, we know that in these parlous economic times – which, by the way, are improving if one can go by the Dow, and generally that’s a decent indicator – every dollar has meaning, but we also know that it is virtually impossible, given contracts, the cost of fuel, etc., for a town, even Bedford, to avoid some sort of increase.

We think the job done this year by the Town Council deserves praise. We think the involvement of Stewart, with whom we have sometimes disagreed, also deserves praise, not to mention emulation.

All in all, taxpayers can be pleased, at least when it comes to the town side of the equation.