The 1% solution?

Jere Hochman accurately reads the election results and says: "We got the message. It was a 1 percent message." While the Superintendent is ready to stay with the 1% budget, it seems (according to Friday's Hampshire Gazette) he may be standing alone among the education faction. The School Committee Chair, having remarked about the lack of leadership when the override fails, may well be poised to reinforce the truth of that observation by not holding the line either.

Over on the Town side, the Selectboard's thrown the Schaffer/Musante budget plan under the bus after managing to ignore the document pretty much from its inception. The Board's budget recommendations start with a preamble indicating its duty to "make guidelines" for the manager in budget preparation, something that apparently wasn't recognized back in January. Well, better late than never.

(Ms. Brewer, having only recently joined the Board, gets a pass on the tardiness. Besides, it seems like she actually read the document.)

It appears both Hochman and Schaffer have counseled their respective employers to stay the course. Abandoning the 1% budget may well result in a financial food fight and end up in chaos. It's better to make the tough decisions and cut the budget than bet on another override or put off the problem for another year.

Good advice that should be taken but won't. (I also can rely on sorry personal experience, from long ago but not far away, as a selectman. Been there, done that, bought the tee shirt.)

Given the current state of affairs the Finance Committee's recommended 1% budget will not hold. In this lies a lesson as to why the "Amherst Plan" override failed. It wasn't a plan, it was a promise. It carried no legal weight, didn't obligate boards or town meeting to adhere to it. To work the "Plan" required a high level of discipline, communication and cooperation over several years – factors that aren't in evidence now, or in the past. The "Plan" would have been compelling if it reflected unanimity among the boards, emerged unscathed from town meeting and then went before the voters.

It didn't happen that way. One gets the feeling that the Amherst Plan backers wanted everything fairly well locked up before it got to town meeting because they, in their heart of hearts, agreed with James Madison: "In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever characters composed, passion never fails to wrest the scepter from reason."

Reading the reports of the first couple of town meeting sessions, I'd say Madison was close to the mark. We can all hope that present trends don't continue.