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Hidden Motives

Just today, when discussing this project of mine, I was told some folks ask, "What's he running for now?" The answer is absolutely nothing.

I cannot imagine every running for office outside of Stockbridge again. In Stockbridge, I've got a year left in my term on the Select Board. Being a select board member is really hard work for really low pay. I've also got a great job as the CFO of a Stockbridge nonprofit, and our signature project, the renovation of Old Town Hall, should be complete by the beginning of this summer. I haven't decided if "what's next" is even a question, let alone formulated an answer. It most certainly does not include running for a district level position ever again.

If anyone asks you why I do this, here's the real answer. I like to write, and I like to keep folks informed of what is going on. I have my whole life. At Monument Mountain, I was editor-in-chief of the school paper, Maroon Reflections. At Boston College, I was elected editor-in-chief of The Heights my sophomore year. Like those gigs from my youth, this one is a hobby. I don't have the talent or reach of local published columnists, let alone national ones. That said, a lot of folks have signed up to read these deep dives, and I like to think there is still room in our pluralist society for many voices to share their ideas.

Read it or don't. That's entirely up to you. I like to think that if you do, you will be better informed.

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Upcoming Webinar on the Housing Crisis

Kudos to Marcie Setlow for organizing the upcoming housing webinar featuring Massachusetts Housing Secretary Ed Augustus, Construct's Jane Ralph, Hearthway/Berkshire Housing's Eileen Peltier, and moderated by the amazing Doug Mishkin of the Egremont Affordable Housing Trust.

The webinar is Wednesday, March 12 from 9:30 – 11am. You can sign up for it by clicking here:

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-wERygQATm6ZUi_yX1T0LA

I've been struck by the amazing coverage of Berkshire County's housing challenges in both The Berkshire Edge and The Berkshire Eagle. Just this past week The Edge ran pieces featuring BHRSD's Peter Dillon, Fairview's Anthony Scibelli, and others. Kudos to Claire O'Callahan of The Eagle for her amazing ongoing coverage as well.

I plan to attend. Hope you do as well!

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Monument Mountain Funding Solutions

In Solidarity with the Leadership of Great Barrington

There's been a lot of press lately about the challenges regarding the municipal budget in Great Barrington. I get it: property taxes are high everywhere, and they are highest in the Berkshire towns that are the most family friendly like Great Barrington because of how school district cost allocation works. Like the leadership from Stockbridge and West Stockbridge, folks on the Great Barrington Select Board, Finance Committee, and School Committee are working really hard to keep the taxes we must pay at least somewhat affordable. It is quite difficult work that gets harder every year.

Stockbridge has a median tax burden of nearly $6,000, West Stockbridge $6,460, and Great Barrington over $8,000. Taxes are getting to the point where we are hollowing out the middle class in our communities. This has nothing to do with board competence and everything to do with the overreliance of property taxes to fund local government in Massachusetts.

The Case for the New High School

Personally, I support the great work the BHRSD School Committee has done planning for a new high school, and that's especially because of its planned investment in vocational offerings.

I'd like to make the case for the vocational high school. 50% of the graduates of South County high schools either do not attend or do not finish college. Good vocational jobs are the key to a future enjoying a middle-class lifestyle with enough income to raise a family rather than subsisting on low-wage poverty. Good jobs are the only way to keep our young folks living here. I strongly commend Superintendent Peter Dillon and the BHRSD School Committee for adding an electrical track to the planned vocational offerings of the proposed new high school. Electricians make enough to raise a family. It's exactly what we need.

Folks need to also consider that our vocational offerings are just a starting point. Think about how it might expand over the next several decades. Plumbing, heating, carpentry, and many other trades. When McCann Tech in North County opened just over half a century ago, it did not offer anywhere near the robust offerings of today. It built its curriculum into a powerhouse that fuels the jobs market in the Pittsfield to North Adams corridor.

Good jobs are the only path out of poverty. They are also in the interest of the rest of us who aren't electricians, plumbers, or carpenters, but desperately need them.

Friend or Foe?

You know, I've tried to be a good friend to our district neighbors. I personally spent hours helping to draft and edit the recent DPU filing and motion by Stockbridge concerning Housatonic Water Works, of which Stockbridge has just 24 of the system's ratepayers. That's the fourth or fifth time I've done so on this case. This initiative was joined subsequently by both Great Barrington and West Stockbridge.

I suggested a policy last week in The Berkshire Edge that would address the funding inequities of school tuition. It was especially perplexing to hear some of the thoughts in response to that brainstorm, including suggestions that proposals from Patrick White are "dead on arrival". It seems that some folks think I overstep when I weigh in as a Select Board member of a junior-partner town on issues like our school district funding.

False Choices, Maybe?

The question of whether the Berkshire Hills Regional School District can afford a new high school has been framed in the media as a question of the affordability of the resulting increase in property taxes for locals. This is a false choice if we look at every opportunity to reign in property taxes while embracing a new high school.

So how do we pay for a new high school without breaking the bank for middle class property taxpayers? We've seen the tough choices the School Committee has made recently to reduce the budget. I have no expertise here so I won't weigh in, but nobody likes to cut jobs and I commend the School Committee for this difficult work. I just wish it wasn't necessary.

Perhaps there are other strategies as well. Here are three ideas...

1. Shift the Tax Burden

I've advocated for a shift of the tax burden from property taxpayers to visitors. In my last issue, I commented on how much I support the increase in the occupancy tax by 1% and restaurant tax rates by a quarter percent. This will have no impact on whether visitors visit and a significant impact on local budgets. I've previously advocated for adding a luxury services option to local receipts. With the unknowns related to federal funding for education, infrastructure, health insurance, and food benefits, we are going to need new ways to keep our schools strong, our poor fed, our roads paved, our bridges in good repair, and our ambulance services running. Over two dozen states, for example, tax ticket sales. Why not Massachusetts?

2. Tuition In Reform

Locally we've got to make sure the burden for these services is fair among the towns who share services. Personally, I feel that is unfair that a town without a high school that is outside our district, a town that has 55% seasonal residents and an average tax burden of around $3,000, should be able to tuition in a child to our high school for less than a third of what it costs in-district taxpayers. It's especially unfair to the taxpayers of Great Barrington, who shoulder the lion's share of the school district operating budget. You can read my letter to this effect in The Berkshire Edge here and Peter Most's column on this topic here.

3. Philanthropy

A few years back I brought up the idea of a capital campaign for the new high school. Without being given the details, I was told that in Massachusetts, it is difficult legally to accept capital campaign donations from private individuals, but there may be ways to do so. This is a really good time to get a definitive answer on whether private funds could be used to support the massive Monument Mountain project. Great Barrington, Stockbridge, and West Stockbridge have a great number of high-net-worth individuals, many of whom are incredibly generous givers. When Simon's Rock came up for sale, you saw that generosity in the commitments that Peter Most's working group received. How about a similar working group for Monument Mountain?

The Way Forward

There is a larger point here. Taxpayers want to feel like their leaders have their back. There is a saying during brainstorming sessions: there are no bad ideas. Not all of these or other community ideas might be realistic or attainable. However, demonstrating to the voters that we are at least trying our best and willing to think outside the box is perhaps an important path to a successful vote this fall on the new high school.

For nearly 300 years, the towns of Stockbridge and Great Barrington have offered secondary education. I for one cannot imagine a district that abandons that centuries-old commitment and sends its high school aged children elsewhere. And yet, that it the likely outcome of a no vote on the new high school.

Let's invest in our children. Entire lives are at stake. Let's do so while recognizing that today's taxpayers shoulder the burden for these investments, and we must have their backs. Convince the voters we are committed to doing both is the best chance we have of getting a reimagined Monument Mountain Regional High School.

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Tanglewood Jobs

I stopped by the Linde Center at Tanglewood on Saturday afternoon, the end of a three day jobs fair. I had a great conversation with Talent Acquisition Manager Karla Woodward. There are lots of jobs available for the Summer 2025 season.

No matter your age, these part-time jobs are a fun way to be a part of the most exciting team in the Berkshires during the summer. They stil have over a hundred positions to fill in, including Patron Services Representatives, Ambassadors, Guides, Parking Lot Attendants, Lawn and Wheel Chair Attendants, and Retailers within the gift shop. Pay is pretty good, between $17.25 and $22 per hour. No matter your age, consider applying for one of these at:

https://bso.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/BSO

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Last Thoughts: Nuclear Pittsfield

Russia has 1,549 strategic nuclear weapons that we know of plus another 2,000 "dual use" intercontinental ballistic missiles that can be equipped with nuclear or non-nuclear warheads. Most of these are pointed at the United States. That doesn't even count the tactical nuclear warheads that could be used against our troops, our ships, and our allies.

In contrast, Ukraine has zero nuclear weapons. That means no nuclear weapons targeting the United States or anywhere else. In fact, when Ukraine decommissioned its nuclear weapons in 1994 after the fall of the Soviet Union, it did so under the condition that the United States would defend its sovereignty from Russian aggression. Ukraine made the world safer and we made a promise to its leaders to get them to do so.

Starting with General Electric and continuing with General Dynamics, Pittsfield has been home to a significant nuclear defense facility, namely the production of Trident II nuclear missiles and the Columbia Class nuclear-armed submarines. The Berkshires have been worried about being a target of a nuclear strike my entire life. It got a lot more attention back when my dad worked for GE than it gets now. Many of us have become desensitized to this threat to our community and to our country.

A nuclear strike on Pittsfield would obliterate everything within a several mile radius. Radiation poisoning would easily reach my home around 8 miles away. Lord only knows how widespread the forest fires would reach, but contiguous forests span from Pittsfield to Williamstown north and Sheffield South. As for fall out, well that depends on the prevailing winds. Generally, winds travel West to East, unless there's a Nor'easter. So Dalton, Washington (MA), and Lanesborough are more likely to be poisoned from fall out than say Stockbridge or Great Barrington. But hey, winds change direction so who knows.

Our neighbors to the north in Pittsfield and Dalton would die fast via incineration. Many of the rest of us would die slower via radiation poisoning.

I was struck by the conversations last week between the heads of France, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine. Their leaders were coaching Zelenskyy on how to flatter our president to get along better with him.

My dad worked his entire career starting in 1956 at Pittsfield's GE. Thankfully, during this time and through to the present, these weapons were never used in a conflict. That didn't happen by accident. The United States led the world with its nearly century-long strategy of nuclear deterrence against and armed and aggressive totalitarian state.

The threat from non-state actors is equally alarming.

Of all the disruption of the last six weeks, it is the purges at the CIA, FBI and the National Security Council that worry me the most, let alone how these cuts may be impacting the massive, classified NSA signals intelligence operation that has successfully intercepted multiple planned attacks since 9/11.

Winston Churchill said, "People have friends. Nations have interests." National security isn't about "good television" or being bros with the flattering leaders of our nuclear adversaries like Putin or Xi or Kim. It is deadly serious business conducted successfully by generations of leaders both Republican and Democrat.