Lenox town budgets

Costs vs. revenue generated yearly either causes real estate taxes to increase or decrease.

Yes, in Lenox we pay money for water/sewer, rubbish collection, community preservation and license fees from building permits to dog licenses. Also, today there is a food tax collected by restaurant owners.

Since more than 60 percent of our real estate tax goes to the school department budget, perhaps we should increase school choice costs by tripling the amount from $5,000 to $15,000, which still is not the full cost of educating a student in Lenox.

The question is, why are we educating students from other towns for a fraction of the cost per student?

According to the Massachusetts Deparment of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) website, the overall town cost in 2011 was $12,771,128, and the cost per pupil is $15,139.

One of our costs is health insurance. Like many of towns in Berkshire County, our municipal employees should be on Group Insurance Commission (GIC), which would save the taxpayers a substantial sum.

Expanding the sewer lines along West Street and the proposed one from Eastover Resort along East Street will bring more users online and increase our water/sewer account. The good news: Tanglewood is coming online.

We have a dedicated town hall staff and a safety department for ambulance, fire and police, along with the building inspector’s office, all of which seem to be sustainable.

Do we increase the tax rate on the commercial business and growth areas from downtown to the routes 7 and 20 strip and up the rate for our small industrial zone businesses?

We have made some inroads on our infrastructure with Canyon Ranch sewer running into Schermerhorn Park to Walker Street and down to Housatonic Street, relieving pressure on the Brunell Avenue sewer pump. Also, there are some new buildings under constriction, bringing in new revenue.

No one likes to dig in his or her own pocket and pay increased taxes without service.

Of course, one could oppose more expenditure at Town Meeting, but then it wouldn’t be a social time. Today, we as a community should explore where Lenox should be headed in the next decade and remain a tourist community by increasing the hotel/motel tax, the food/drink tax and/or develop a tax on tickets to help underwrite our fire, police and ambulance costs.

Food for thought as we prepare our budgets for next year.

Posted by George C. Jordan III on November 29, 2012. Filed under Editorials,Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry