Letter: An Open Letter to Amherst Town Leadership On The Funding Of Capital Projects
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The following letter was sent to the Amherst Town Council and Finance Committee on April 6, 2023.
You have recently received a very strong plea from a principal fund raiser for the Jones Library, urging “you NOT to use any of the town’s reserves for the elementary school project” and saying that “[d]oing so is just another instance of the kind of undisciplined spending (and procrastination thereof) that, over a long period of time, got the Town into the financial pickle it now faces.”
This week, as the council debated the financial planning for the the elementary school, you reminded us that there are four capital projects that will require Amherst taxpayers’ money: the school, plus a new firehouse, a home for the department of public works, and the renovation of the library.
Earlier, the council’s president assured us that the town would limit our taxpayers’ contribution for the renovation of the library to $15.8 million (plus any CPAC grants).
“Responsible governing requires that you announce now the amount of funds you will be committing to the library when its plans are complete. Otherwise, you risk fueling the suspicion that you are limiting funds for the school now, because you prefer to spend them on the library later.”
This plea, now, for fiscal restraint in school financing from the library’s fund raiser begs the question: A year from now, how much will the library’s leaders ask you to spend for the library’s renovation?
You know that the library is in the design development phase of a project whose cost estimate already exceeds its original plan and, unless its board undertakes the fundamental reconsideration that I and others have recommended, is likely to produce bids from contractors that are even higher.
Before Amherst citizens cast their votes in May on the tax override for the school, we need to understand the full economic picture. The library is next in line. Responsible governing requires that you announce now the amount of funds you will be committing to the library when its plans are complete. Otherwise, you risk fueling the suspicion that you are limiting funds for the school now, because you prefer to spend them on the library later.
Ken Rosenthal
Ken Rosenthal lives on Sunset Avenue in Amherst. He was Chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals and of the former Development and Industrial Commission, and was a member of the Select Committee on Goals for Amherst. He was a founder of Hampshire College and its first chief financial officer.
Several of those who spoke against the use of reserves to lessen the burden of the school override said they did so because all of that money was needed for construction of a new fire house. Of course there are not yet any plans for that project, nor is there a design, a budget, or a site on which to build. That project will not begin until 2028 at the earliest and there has been talk of a 2032 start date. The argument that using another $5M of reserves to lessen school borrowing would likely delay the fire house completion by several years seems fantastic. Perhaps those arguing so vociferously to conserve those funds plan to use them for something else – e.g to help cover the out-of-control cost overruns of the bloated Jones Library expansion. To do so, after pleading so passionately for conserving that money for the firehouse project would be dishonest, duplicitous and undisciplined. As Ken (and Jeff Lee elsewhere in this issue) suggest, councilors could go a long way toward reestablishing trust with Amherst residents by stating now, unequivocally, that reserves will not be used to bail out a library project that is outrageously over budget. I call on our town councilors to make that commitment.
Thank you, Ken and Art!
At the risk of crying wolf, I point out that the Jones Library’s demolition/construction project is not only outrageously over its initially outrageous budget.
The Amherst Town Council and Jones Library Trustees are now paying their architects tens of thousands of dollars for “design development” of a design that fails to comply with the Massachusetts Historic Preservation Law.
That law is at Mass. General Laws, Chapter 9, Sections 26 and 27C, and at Title 950, Code of Mass. Regulations, Section 71.00: Protection of Properties Included in the State Register of Historical [sic] Places.
Furthermore, in its grant contract with the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, Town Council promised to comply with this law as a condition of the grant.
This failure therefore jeopardizes the Town’s eligibility for any additional Massachusetts State grant money. This also sets the Town up for a legal obligation to return the $2.7 million in grant money that it’s received so far — plus interest.
Recall that the wolf did come.