ELECTION DAY!- Do You REALLY Know What's On the Ballot??

In addition to the usual Townwide Offices and Precinct TMMs, there is a ballot question about very expensive proposal to rebuild the Underwood Pool on Concord Ave.

Consider this:

**  The price of the project is scandalously high: "Mr. Scarlata (principal designer) provided a breakdown and noted that the total projected construction cost is $5.2 Million" ...  Selectman Rojas seemed to think the contingency estimates were low..  (Selectmen's Minutes, Feb 10, 2014).

 **  In 2009, the last year with available numbers, there were UNDER 650 memberships sold... about 5% of the Town. And the pool LOST $35,000 on operations.

 **  The pool cost works out to about $8000 per pool membership. A nice club for the 650 user families...  NOTHING but increased Property Tax bills for the other 10,350 Belmont families.

 **  And remember, this is Belmont, MA, NOT Belmont, CA. It gets cold and even SNOWS here! That is an unalterable fact, despite Selectman Paolillo's call for an extended operating season. The truth is, the pool is useful for about 3 months per year. No more.

 **  The Debt Exclusion (Note the amount is UNLIMITED in the Ballot Question text) will cost every Belmont household $48 per year for 15 years. (BoS Minutes), That's $720 from every family, even the over 10,000 that don't use the pool. It could be more if the price goes up again.

 **  The pool activists behind this proposal have cleverly tried to make the cost APPEAR to be lower by taking $2,000,000 from the CPA slush fund. That is NOT 'free money'. It is YOUR money, collected, but as yet unspent, from the CPA surtax, levied on top of the already very high Belmont Property Taxes.

 Note that if the CPA money is NOT squandered on the pool, it does NOT vanish. It is still in the Town coffers and can be spent more wisely on other projects.

**  Belmont Property Taxes are already high. To see just how much you are REALLY paying Belmont every year, take your Property Tax bill that ust came in the mail, and multiply by FOUR! Quarterly billing intentionally fools people into believing that the Property Tax is more reasonable.

 **  Now, think about whether it's a good idea to make the Property Tax bill it EVEN BIGGER.

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Remember, this Special Interest WANT …

...  NOT a genuine community NEED!

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 Then, go to the polls and

 VOTE NO on Question 1