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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.