Affordability loses, taxes and fees win

By Guest

By Larry Overlan

Never has the old saw by Benjamin Franklin been truer: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” In Canton, we can add a slight modification — “higher taxes and higher fees.” The Canton School Committee, in its preliminary operating budget for FY27, requested a 12.4 percent increase over this year’s budget before the Finance Committee set a target figure of about 5.3 percent higher, which would give them around $3.15 million in new spending.

The education budget is nearly 50 percent of the town’s entire budget, so more revenue will be required to balance it. (School leaders are hoping to close the gap with a combination of grants and other revenue offsets; but there is more work to do on that front with the school budget hearing scheduled for tonight at CHS.)

But wait, there’s more. There are “new and improved” fees in the school system. Starting next year, they will be adding a “one-time” $50 fee on elementary school clubs and activities. Any bets on this being “one time?” Then there are all the existing fees being increased, such as facilities fees for high school hockey (rising from $350 to $500 per athlete), gymnastics (from $150 to $200), and swimming (from $100 to $150).

This is additional revenue to the education establishment on top of the requested additional town funding! Where does it all go?

Believe it or not, there was a time when there were no athletic or club fees. Some of you may remember these wonderful times when the kids could enjoy sports and camaraderie while avoiding dangerous idle time and asking mom and dad to shell out more money. It all started in the 1980s, and there were many promises that it would be temporary. Those were the days my friend, those were the days.

All of these fees should be eliminated. On the one hand, I hear the clarion call of “affordability, affordable housing, equity,” blah, blah, blah. Then, whenever the opportunity arises, our rulers jack up fees and property taxes. Such hypocrisy. How about a moratorium on all such increases for three years to allow Canton’s citizens to get a little ahead of the game instead of feeling like caged rats running in place and never getting anywhere?

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Canton’s annual town election is Tuesday, April 7. The Select Board has two open seats and four contenders. I suggest you ask each of them if they support these outrageous fees. They act as if they are our rulers, but they actually work for us, the citizens … they are our employees, not the other way around.

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There will likely be 11 ballot questions this November. One will be to lower the income tax from 5 percent to 4 percent. No mystery about which way I will vote. The only way to stop the special interests from grabbing increasing revenues for their pet projects is to drain the swamp.

There is another ballot question that would limit state tax collections growth and return the surplus to taxpayers. Such a wonderful idea. Our rulers at the state level do their best to spend our money as fast as they get it … much of it going to the interest groups who support them. Sounds like another “Yes” from me. Now if only Canton could be brought under control.

Larry Overlan is an adjunct professor of economics and government at several Boston area colleges, a longtime resident of Canton, and the current chair of the Canton Republican Town Committee. The views expressed in his column are solely his own.

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