LtE: Vote Yes for Override

Dear Reading Residents,

I am the Vice Chair of the Select Board, and I hope you will join me and vote YES for the override on election day, November 3rd. I take my role on the Select Board and my obligation to represent the interests of all residents very seriously and believe that this override is warranted. Having lived in Reading since 1993, I have seen a fair number of tax increases due to overrides and debt exclusions over the years, and I have never felt I made the wrong decision to support these requests.

A request for an override is not something to be taken lightly. Many, many hours of discussions, budget talks, spreadsheets, and agonizing decisions have gone into this request. Thank you to our town staff for working tirelessly to provide presentations, spreadsheets, videos, webinars, Q&A Zoom meetings to inform our residents on how we got here, and why we are asking for an override. The detailed information they have provided can be found on the Town Website and I implore you to review the information, watch the videos, or even attend one of the remaining information sessions.

One can say our town can be split into thirds: 1/3 of have school age children; 1/3 of are over 60+, and 1/3 is the group where you may not have children at home, and haven’t quite made it to the 60+ group. Each resident has different needs during their specific phase of life, however we share something in common – we are all part of a community that supports one another. The override will not support one group over another, it will support the entire town and the needs for all residents. I am very sensitive that for some Reading residents, any tax increase brings additional stress and hardship to their household. We need to be ensure residents who are facing these hardships are informed regarding what resources are available to assist.

We are all feeling the pain of astronomical increases in expenses, both at home and in town. We are also feeling the pain due to the reduced investment by the state. This lack of investment on the state level forces us, at the local level, to make some difficult decisions regarding how to pick up the slack in funding to continue to provide high quality, yet affordable, services to our residents. We need to continue to press our legislature to provide more funds to cities and towns – it is clearly evident they are not providing enough funding as there are many, many communities in our same situation facing override votes and reductions in services.
Please vote YES and support the override.

Karen Rose-Gillis
Linden Street