Thanks to all of you who joined us for this year's Annual Town Meeting. We had some victories and some close calls on others! We will send out a full summary of the Town Meeting results soon.
We're just getting started!
We're just getting started!
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Our Andover property taxes have increased 40% over the past 8 years but that is not enough for our town officials.
Andover residents also pay up to $600 per year for their kids to ride the bus to school, fees for school sports, parking fees at the high school. Parents are given school supply lists not just for their own children's supplies but also for classroom supplies! Teachers often pay for classsroom materials out of their own pockets just to teach our kids. Our tax dollars used to pay for a complete public education that included all of the above. Now those funds are being diverted to overly generous compensation packages for town employees and expensive/unnecessary capital projects. Explore the website for more details. |
Subscribers
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Here is our 3-point plan to put an end to this fiscal disaster:
1. Transparency
This website was designed to show how our tax dollars are spent. The mismanagement of our tax dollars has resulted in large and unsustainable unfunded liabilities approaching $400 million and growing.
2. Build a Database of Supporters
Please Sign Up on our site. (Your name and e-mail will be kept confidential.) The success of this effort is dependent upon our ability to identify and mobilize supporters. If you do not sign up on the site, we cannot quantify our support or reach you when an important vote is at hand. In just a few weeks, we already have over 100 Andover voters signed up through our website based solely on one article in the Andover Townsman and word of mouth. We need all of you to spread the word.
3. Mobilize Supporters
Our goal is to build a database of 500 to 1,000 supporters. With numbers like that we can bring about real change. Andover's Town Meeting form of government presents an interesting opportunity. Most important issues in our town, including approval of the annual town budget and major capital expenditures like the Andover Youth Center, Bancroft School, etc., are decided by a margin of just a few hundred voters. That is a small fraction of the town's 22,000 registered voters.
Enough is enough! Let's take back our town and ensure our tax dollars go towards your child's education and affordable town services. If Town Officials refuse to provide "top-down" leadership then all of us will provide "bottoms-up" leadership.
This website was designed to show how our tax dollars are spent. The mismanagement of our tax dollars has resulted in large and unsustainable unfunded liabilities approaching $400 million and growing.
2. Build a Database of Supporters
Please Sign Up on our site. (Your name and e-mail will be kept confidential.) The success of this effort is dependent upon our ability to identify and mobilize supporters. If you do not sign up on the site, we cannot quantify our support or reach you when an important vote is at hand. In just a few weeks, we already have over 100 Andover voters signed up through our website based solely on one article in the Andover Townsman and word of mouth. We need all of you to spread the word.
3. Mobilize Supporters
Our goal is to build a database of 500 to 1,000 supporters. With numbers like that we can bring about real change. Andover's Town Meeting form of government presents an interesting opportunity. Most important issues in our town, including approval of the annual town budget and major capital expenditures like the Andover Youth Center, Bancroft School, etc., are decided by a margin of just a few hundred voters. That is a small fraction of the town's 22,000 registered voters.
Enough is enough! Let's take back our town and ensure our tax dollars go towards your child's education and affordable town services. If Town Officials refuse to provide "top-down" leadership then all of us will provide "bottoms-up" leadership.
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"Buzz" of the Week
"The Town is ENTITLED to the two and one-half percent increase in taxes allowed by Proposition 2 1/2 plus all of the new growth." Joanne Marden, Finance Committee Meeting, 4/22/2013
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