Thanks to our friends at NewTV you can watch live coverage of the election results right here starting at 7:30 p.m.
NEWTON OVERRIDES: Watch results and comment here!
by Greg Reibman | Mar 12, 2013 | Override | 41 comments
Crazy Divers: Men be like...
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I’ve got my jammies on and a box of Milk Duds. Bring it on!
BTW, I sure hope Jenn Adams has one of those big TV screen walls like Wolf Blitzer has.
Hey, Greg, my clock reads 7:28. But who’s watching the clock?
I’ve never been very patient on election day .
Anybody know what Lenny Gentile comment Deb Crosley was talking about?
Josh Norman claiming they had a similar GOTV effort as the 3Ys! Astonishing and entirely unbelievable claim.
Matt Hills: Mayor is “an adult with his hands on the steering wheel.”. And that’s why all three questions will pass tonight.
Matt Hills rocks!
This guy Norman is “Tom Mountain The Sequel.” He just makes stuff up and uses “we” when he really mostly means “me.”
With 23 of 32 precincts reporting, I’m willing to say that all three questions passed. Anyone else?
I’m thinking the same thing. I’m seeing four winners tonight: questions one, two, three and Matt Hills.
Add Setti Warren to your list of winners. Three override questions just passed easily in Newton.
@Gail. Of course. I was just referring to what I was watching. Big win for our mayor.
And with 28 out of 32 precincts reporting, it’s a landslide!
There you go folks, Village 14 ( with an assist from Tricia) has called the election!
28 out of 32 now. We’re done here.
Gail took the words right off my fingertips… Setti Warren, is going to be very tough to beat if he sticks around.
And Mike, what about your guarantee that one of these three questions would fail?
Somebody might want to check my math but here are my calculations on the margins:
Question 1. 54% – 46%
Question 2. 56% – 44%
Question 3. 56% – 44%
I don’t know exact voter registration figures but I believe that 57,700 people voted in the November 2012 election, so I’d estimate voter turnout at 30 percent.
Is Matt Hills second from left? If so, who is between him and Joshua Norman? I’ve been watching for ten minutes and haven’t seen any names.
@Dfols: Ron Lipof
Terrific! Really, a huge victory for the mayor, and as a resident of newtonville, I’m just happy.
Greg–I don’t do “guarantees.” Only predictions like everyone else. Glad I was wrong.
Congratulations and many, many thanks to Emily Prenner, Marcia Tabenken, the Mayor, members of the school committee and Board of Aldermen and all the volunteers who worked so hard to support all three override questions. It is a great day for Newton!
Not to bring down the tone of the conversation, but am I the only person who hear Josh Norman say “Like Ettlinger?” when Matt, or perhaps it was Ron, was talking about the necessity to pay the going rate to attract good teachers? Still reeling from that, but very, very happy with the result.
Greg, WRT your post about me, I don’t make stuff up. I don’t have to. I think you and your people are surprised that I actually take the time to read the city’s financial statements and projections.
I was surprised that people bought the whole smoke and mirrors story about Setti Warren saving $200M. If Setti saved all this money, then why is annual general fund spending increasing from $287.5M in 2010 to $386M in 2018?
2010
http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/37257
2018
http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/47016
Or is this making things up because I am contradicting the Setti Hall narrative of $200M of “savings”?
My group and I had a number of good ideas as to how the city could meet its needs without sticking voters with a big property tax increase. This time around, the voters were more impressed with the Setti Hall smoke and mirrors show.
No matter though, if Setti Warren & Company are as smart as everyone says, they will embrace our ideas anyway and we won’t ever need another Property Tax override increase. And if they don’t, then they don’t deserve one. We won’t be fooled again.
WRT “Josh Norman claiming they had a similar GOTV effort as the 3Ys! Astonishing and entirely unbelievable claim.”
As for this election, I was amazed that despite all the effort by both sides, voter turnout was down sharply from the 2008 election, which was down significantly from the 2002 election. If anything, most people in Newton didn’t know, didn’t show or quite frankly didn’t care that there was an election.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/newton/news/x1874998278/Override-vote-defeated#axzz2N4WhMkbG
As for you comparing me to Tom Mountain, I’ve met Tom Mountain. Tom Mountain is a good man and a decent man. You’re no Tom Mountain.
That’s the truth.
Greg –
Never thought I’d read those words.
I heard the Ettlinger comment. Disgusted, but not surprised. I think Joshua’s big miscalculation was assuming it was all about the numbers. (specifically his numbers.) He could never quite grasp that a significant portion of the 2008 No vote was not anti-tax, no override ever voters, but people who recognized that more revenue was needed but were saying No to the way that administration was doing business and the direction they were taking the city. Four years later, and the direction has changed enough for those folks to say Yes(3).
Tricia, if anything, I’m disgusted that people bought the smoke and mirrors act that BNF was peddling.
We’re not anti-revenue. We actually proposed $12M/year of alternative sources of funding. If the mayor and his team are the top-notch managers that everyone says they are, they will vigorously pursue these funding streams and we’ll never have to have this dance again. And if they don’t, then they don’t deserve any more extravagantly expensive property tax hikes.
We don’t believe that city government should be rewarded with more money to spend when they took the money we gave them for infrastructure and spent it elsewhere.
I have nothing to be ashamed of, even though my group and I lost. I would hope that people would know that few stood against many, that fiscal responsibility stood against fiscal mismanagement and that even the most popular mayor can be held accountable by his citizens.
Tricia – I’m one of the voters you described; you nailed it.
Glad I didn’t hear the Ettlinger comment, as I might have ended up with a broken screen from hurling a heavy object at it.
This is a very gratifying result. The Mayor and many of us ran on some version of the platform that just got funded by this vote. The Mayor did the heavy lifting though, preparing our city finances over the last three years so the voters could appreciate the need and then support his proposed solution.
At the same time we must acknowledge that for some of our residents this increase will be difficult, that this override will not solve all of our city’s problems, and that we must continue to find ways to work more efficiently with our resources.
I’m glad to be a part of this effort!
Perhaps, just perhaps, it wasn’t all smoke and mirrors, and Newton residents are capable of reaching good conclusions.
I strongly supported all three questions, but in the spirit of fiscal responsibility, I still hope someone takes one last look at a second look at the Firefighter’s triangle. Just because the city now has the option to rebuild the station doesn’t mean it can’t look at mixed-use or a private partnership. It’s the fiscally responsible thing to do.
I hope that some of the money from Question 1 can be used to eliminate school activity fees (re: the previous thread).
@mgwa, that $8.4 million is pretty well spoken for, and folks will want to see it’s spent as advertised.
However,I’m convinced the administration is committed to continuing to streamline operations and my hope would be that continued effort will perhaps relieve pressure such that these activity fees can be eliminated or significantly reduced.
@Adam, I’d encourage you to speak to some folks that were deeply involved in that analysis to learn of other factors that led people to not get on board with it. it wasn’t just disgruntled NIMBYs.
@Dan, I’d love to learn more. If anyone wants to provide that information, that would be most helpful. It wouldn’t be the first time an idea looked great on paper and didn’t work out, but there’s got to be a better use of that real estate. It wouldn’t be the first time NIMBYs forced the city into a poor planning choice, either.
@Dan – I should have said “I hope that now that #1 passed, it will be possible to find room in the city budget to…” I didn’t mean that it would go directly there.
Could there be a second override in one year? If the mayor can get a 25% pay raise it is not fair that other town employees don’ t. How can a janitor and a dog catcher get by on paltry 100K a year salaries! No wonder the override! Wake up taxpayers!
@Adam, if you want to, you can contact me at [email protected].
I can tell you what i know, and can point you to others that can fill in any gaps.
@mgwa, I only drew the distinction because the ’02 override apparently did leave folks feeling that money promised for certain things got spent elsewhere. in this case, the 2 debt exclusion items are quite specific, and there’s little doubt that Zervas and the fire station won’t get done. Also no doubt in my mind at least that the promised extra teachers.
What does that leave? The extra $million per year for added road repair work [pretty obviously needed] and 4 new police officers.
I’m sorry. This is a victory, but not a landslide or mandate by any means. I voted for the override, but still respect many of the issues brought up by the anti-override crowd. They weren’t blanket “no tax” people this time. They raised valid points ,well grounded in data. METCO must be reviewed, not just about its cost and impact on overcrowding, but about whether it is an effective education program serving the needs of today vs. those of 40 years ago. If we keep participating in it, we should be working diligently to bridge the achievement gap that our test scores indicate, and demanding financial support from the Commonwealth in order to accomplish that. It’s also time to strike more balance between maintaining buildings, moving educational excellence forward and ensuring that our children and staff are utilizing the latest technologies vs. raising salaries/benefits when other school systems (over the course of the last decade) have been more modest and opted to invest in children vs. the financial advancement of educators. If we could fund Full Day Kindergarten and stronger early education that would save many more dollars later on at the cost of teachers paying a higher health insurance deductible, well, I’d opt for investing in early education. Or gifted and talented programs. Or world languages in the elementary schools. Or whatever Brookline has and we don’t, including more instructional hours (because they close for “days” vs. an 11:00 closing where kids watched movies counting as a full day of instruction and negotiated a longer school day in their last contract). I urge everyone who had all that data to amplify it and get out there when it can do the most good. Not when we are considering an override, but when our city is negotiating union contracts.
Thanks for the Real Truth World