Many years ago, in the dense mists of antiquity, in 1957, I came to that small town called Lexington, as I started a new job. The population was somewhat less than it is today, but was steadily increasing, matching the population increase of Greenland. It finally stabilized at about 30,000 +/- 2 or 3 thousand. The property taxes continued to increase at about 5% a year, more or less. But the town expenses, especially those for the schools, kept increasing at greater levels. So problems arose: how to pay for increases without increasing voter dissatisfaction too much. So at first this was solved by eliminating school programs, or introducing fees for service. Thus some programs were saved, and items like school buses. But problems continued. The Commonwealth came to the rescue, with the allowance of what were called enterprise programs, for water, sewer, recreation. These programs had been formerly included as integral parts of the town budget. As such they provided certain tax ad advantages as offsets -- how this worked I don't know, not being a tax attorney. As fees for service, however, those tax advantages disappeared. I remember at one town meeting asking Jackie Smith, then a Selectman, if they really weren't what had been called property taxes earlier. She agreed. So, by simply changing the name they became revenue enhancements.
But even this was not enough. So developers began to argue that they would reduce the residents taxes by these large industrial payments. They never provided actual proof that this would happen -- in fact, it never did happen. A resident's property tax continued to increase at the same average rate over time no matter how much these commercial developments contributed to our budget. So these revenue enhancements turned out be ways of spending more than otherwise would have happened. Even the passage of a state law limiting something or other to 2.5% a year seemed to have no effect -- debt was excluded from the limitation. And what used to be a fearful thing at town meeting became a normal and increasing thing over the years.
So there is a constant search for revenue enhancements to the town budget, often labelled as fees for service. Now the logical (and absurd) outcome of the process is to put, for example, all school programs, history, mathematics, etc., on individual bases of fees for service. Thus a parent can choose the subjects that he wants his children to be taught -- thus eliminating the resentment he may feel at subjects that he believes don't belong in the curriculum.
And, by the way, I think I heard at the Special Town Meeting that planning for future property taxes was based on an annual increase of 5%.
So, to summarize: any proposals for fees for service are basically proposals for revenue enhancements outside, and in addition to, the normal budget. In my opinion we don't need additions to a budget disguised as fees. We need rather to look at keeping expenses down -- more efforts at conservation, or provision of solar power, as examples, and making such efforts a primary focus of our planning.
Sam Silverman, Pct. 5