Friday, October 31, 2008

Question 1 Forum....On Newburyport Cable

On Thursday, October 23rd, the Democratic Committees of Amesbury, Newbury, Newburyport, Salisbury, and West Newbury sponsored the Kickoff of No on Question 1 forum which featured these officials talking about the impact of Question 1 on their community:

Amesbury Mayor Thatcher Kezer
Newbury Dina Sullivan, Chair Triton School Committee
Newburyport Mayor John Moak
Salisbury Selectman Jerry Klima
West Newbury Selectman Dick Cushing

It was an informative evening.

With thanks to Don Meskie and Ann Connolly-King of Amesbury for coordinating the taping of the event and Port Media for airing, here are the show times, all on channel 9 in Newburyport.

Fri. - 1:00 pm
Sat. - 10:00 am
Sat. - 7:00 pm
Sun. - 8:00 am
Mon. - 8:30 pm

Additionally, a streaming version has been posted on www.amesburydemocrats.org.

You can also get more information on No on Question 1 at: http://votenoquestion1.com/

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could you give us one good reason not to vote YES on question 1?

ECC said...

X,

Is this the real Mr. X?

Here are some reasons to Vote NO?

If you think there is more fat in the City budget that needs to be cut first, vote NO.

If you can't afford an additional average of $140-170 a year on top of the avg $5,000 you're already paying in property tax, vote NO.

Here's why I'm voting YES, not that you asked:

A lot of communities use 'debt exclusions' to pay a time-limited tax increase to pay the future debt on specific capital items.

We're doing it 'bassackwards'. Some of these items are old debt, some are newer debt. The newer items that the current Council voted for are essentially safety items of the sort where if we don't pay for it now, we'll incur some catastrophe down the road(either someone's going to get hurt or it's going to cost us more money).

Even the $30,000 City Hall bathroom renovation that Jim Roy(he of the Liberator) regularly derides is essential--at least if you agree that persons in wheelchairs ought to be able to take a leak at City Hall. And by the way, the Council asked the Mayor about that amount and the Mayor was pretty sure it would cost less but didn't want to come back and ask for more.

We're paying now (or we're gonna pay when we get to the new items) for these obligations out of our operating budget. The debt exclusion (you might compare it to a personal debt consolidation)would free up some money in our operating budget.

X, it's your money. So good luck making the choice.

Ed Cameron

Anonymous said...

Councilor--
I wish you had devoted more attention to Question 4, which was of more immediate concern to Newburyport taxpayers. As a supporter of the question, I am dismayed councilors were not more public in their public support, or even opposition. Please focus a little more on local matters of mroe immediate concern to your constituents. True, Question 1 would have affected the city, but not as much as Question 4.