James Winder, Westford resident

Let me just start by saying that it’s not lost on me that advocating to pay more taxes feels vaguely masochistic. And if you’re thinking in individual terms, maybe it is. But we are more than individuals, we are a community: the whole point of living together in this beautiful town is to share the cost of public goods so that we can all enjoy collective benefits.

That being said, if I am going to be paying taxes, I want to see a return. Like all of you, I’m both financially and emotionally invested in the future of Westford, but I grew up outside the US in a country where the government doesn’t even have the resources to keep the lights on for 24 consecutive hours. I know from personal experience that the only thing more demoralizing than seeing your taxes increase is seeing your taxes increase while your most valued community services decline and disappear.

This is what we are facing: the services that we lose if the override does not pass will not be recovered. Once they’re gone, it seems far-fetched to imagine a scenario in which we’re suddenly able to bring back the firefighters, police officers, emergency dispatchers, library staff, and more than seventy Westford Public Schools roles that are at risk right now.

Research shows that class size is a significant predictor of academic success, even for kids who don’t need special support; another predictor is the ability to attract and retain teaching talent. Both of these are going to be impacted if the override fails and Westford Schools is forced to lay off up to 100 members of staff by 2028.

Apart from the teachers themselves, losing 70-100 positions in Westford Schools is going to impact the kids of this town most directly. It’s going to mean bigger classes, reduced teacher bandwidth, and more stress on an already stressed system. But even if you don’t have a child at school, the future value of your investment in this town hinges on a well-supported school system that continues to attract a steady flow of young, dynamic families who want to call Westford home.

While there’s lots to be proud of in this town, Westford Public Schools is the major component of its brand. For almost everyone I know, the school system is what brought them to the town, and it’s the schools that keep them here. As such, I can hardly imagine a better forward-looking indicator of the character of a town than its will to maintain a robust school system that delivers a high-quality education to all its students.

Should we be developing a strategy to grow the town’s revenue? Yes. Should we be worried about what happens when the next call for an override comes round? Yes. Should we be pressuring the town to diversify and expand the town’s revenue base? Absolutely. Is this the mechanism to do it?

No. No it’s not.

Using this override as an opportunity to hold the town’s administrators over a barrel is a misguided exercise that will only have negative short- and long-term outcomes for our community. You don’t need me to remind you that we’ve dragged this economy through an extraordinary few years: a once-in-a-century pandemic, a trillion-dollar cash injection, the outbreak of two regional wars, an interest rate hike, and now – to top it all – the mysterious disappearance of the Princess of Wales. But we cannot allow a knee-jerk decision, taken in a very specific moment of acute pressure to set the town on a long-term trajectory of declining service delivery.

Finally, I recognize that there are people looking at this override with genuine anxiety about how it might impact Westford’s affordability. You can see exactly how the override will impact your taxes here, and  I encourage you to look into the various tax relief programs the town has in place.

We don’t get another shot at this, so I urge you to think carefully about the impact of your vote in terms of your community, and the future we’ll be building here. Whichever way this vote goes, we’ll be dealing with the outcomes for years. So let’s make sure they’re positive, optimistic, and forward-looking.

Disclaimer: If you would like to submit a letter to the editor, contact managing editor Ben Domaingue at bdomaingue@westfordcat.org. Letters to the editor are reviewed and published at the discretion of the editor. Letters to the editor represent the opinion of the reader who submits it and do not necessarily represent the opinions of WestfordCAT, its employees or any of its affiliates. WestfordCAT retains the right to refuse any letter to the editor for publication as it deems necessary.

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