I found the letter about the cost of a cup of coffee a day being equivalent to what the Town is asking residents to pay in additional property taxes by voting for the Override on Question 1 utterly specious and misleading.
For those who want to remain in their Belmont homes as they send their children off to college, pay off their mortgages, and finally retire, this subject is serious.
On April 2, instead of paying for a cup of coffee, voters are being asked to commit their homes to support someone who buys a new car every year without paying for the car they bought the year before, adding to their monthly obligations and digging themselves deeper into a hole of debt.
Property taxes are a serious matter–in Massachusetts (as I understand it) if you can’t pay them you will get a lien on your property and be unable to sell it. In fact, according to Chapter 60 of the General Laws governing the procedures available to municipalities for collecting delinquent real estate taxes, the most common remedy is the process by which the municipality seizes absolute title to the taxpayer’s land by tax deed (Section 53 of Chapter 60).
Belmont’s municipal leaders need to do better. I am voting No on the override.
Deborah Theodore, Belmont Street