How desperate is the CC to get the CPA approved
In what only can be described as a Hail Marry, G King wants marijuana revenue to go to off setting the CPA tax increase if passed. The irony here is that he and others have delayed the opening of retail pot shops AND he has no idea of what monies have been paid to the city in host agreement fees. Just how much money can Framingham expect in the next few years and does he really think bargaining with the Mayor over pot revenue is some advantage for the tax payer? What a foolish non-binding resolution it is just to get the CPA tax increase passed.
From the Patch:
FRAMINGHAM, MA — The Framingham City Council is asking voters to approve a ballot question about adopting the Community Preservation Act, but with one interesting caveat.
District 2 Councilor Cesar Stewart-Morales brought the resolution to Council that "urges the city's voters to adopt the Community Preservation Act by voting favorably on Ballot Question 3."
But before a vote on the resolution Tuesday night, Chair George King Jr. added a new part that asks Mayor Yvonne Spicer's administration to offset the cost of the CPA with revenue from marijuana businesses.
If adopted, most property owners will pay a 1 percent surcharge on a portion of property taxes to fund the CPA. Resolutions do not carry a mandate, but King said the language around using marijuana revenue could give the Council leverage in future budget deliberations.
Under state law, communities are allowed to extract impact fees from recreational and medical marijuana businesses. Temescal Wellness and Cultivate are the city's two operating marijuana retailers, but others are set to open in the coming years.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 11:23 AM
13 Comments
13 Comments:
Vote no on the CPA not because it is a bad idea, but because it is the absolute wrong time to be asking residents to pay more in taxes. These entitled idiots supporting the CPA have no empathy for all those who are struggling at this time.
A question? How would what Mr. King proposed help? Would it lower the amount I would have to pay towards the CPA? If so by how much? If not in what way would that money be used to offset costs? It is a useless statement by the DC if they don't tell us how it will impact us and I have to say their making that request after approving the CPA makes me realize that supporting the CPA is not in the best interest of residents. Even though the DC say the support it, they are looking for a way to lower the money we have to pay, so in other words they are admitting it is too expensive at this time. And if they really expect the mayor to agree to what they proposed, then they have not been paying attention for the last 3 years.
I was on the fence about how I was going to vote on the CPA but after seeing Kings statement that the mayor should use pot revenue to lower the cost, I realized that even the district councilors think this is not the time to add to residents tax bills. Thank you George King. You convinced me that voting no on this is the right vote.
If the chair of the district council expects the mayor to do as he "suggested" he is off his rocker. And if that same chair of the district council thinks we need to lower the amount residents have to pay for the CPA with money from the mayor, and all the other district councilors supported that request, obviously the district councilors think the residents should not have to pay for this out of their own pocket, so how can they support it? I agree with the previous poster. I was leaning towards voting yes, but given Mr. King's proposal, I have changed my mind and will vote no on the CPA. I hope others will think about this very carefully in light of the message the district council is sending about this. It is a good idea, but being proposed at the wrong time.
Vote no on CPA. It is insulting to be proposing adding to the tax burden for something like this on top of the Fuller School when so many people are struggling to put food on their table. Are you not paying attention to how many are lined up at the food pantrys?
I agree with what several have said here. If the Chair of the District Council thinks that to pay for this the city has to chip in more money, then we should not even be considering this. How about using that money from the pot store sales to help out small businesses, or to increase what we offer for food and/or rent subsidies, or towards the school expenses. There are much more important places to put our money this year than in something that is a luxury, not a necessity. Let's push the CPA off until people are not struggling as much. This is insulting and makes us look like a community of uncaring elitists who ignore our neighbors who are hurting. Maybe there are more Trump supporters in Framingham than we know.
I am voting yes but am now having second thoughts after reading about the councilors asking the mayor to help with residents payments. What do they know that we don’t know about commingvtax increases. I may change my mind now
Watch the LWV recording on both sides of your this issue and then make up your mind. Unbiased respectful and informative hour of facts. That is how you should decide how to vote. Not based on some stupid resolution with absolutely no teeth in it that the district councilors proposed to make themselves look good. Complete waste of time. They should be talking about how to stop the spread of covid instead of trying to influence voters on this isdue
king's idea to use the pot money is more for political show. he plays the game of supporting and not supporting cpa at the same time since he's trying to appease everybody if he runs for mayor. that's a sackless move Georgie.
What George didn't clarify was the host agreement money that the Mayor has received or will receive, hard to figure exactly how much is in that kitty. But unless Framingham can substantiate expenses, some of that money will have to be paid back.
Notice not much follow-up from the press on his resolution.
Jim do you think he really even cares? I agree wIth the post about it being for political show. This way he can say he was there for the taxpayers. It was no different when they were stopping the apartments he didn’t support it to score points with the businesses. He doesn’t want to piss anyone off so he takes all positions.
Your right.. most wouldn't care. Perhaps if he's elected Mayor he will take the pot revenue and divert it to the CPA fund and lower everyone's taxes by 1%.
If he is elected he could setup some poker tournaments down at the city hall ro raise money for it.
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