A lesson in openness we can all learn from

A week ago today Milton selectmen issued a press release stating they had tapped into the town's fund balance to the tune of about $500,000 to reduce what would have been a double digit property tax hike.

While many in Milton would like to shake their fist at the town's spending and seeing their taxes skyrocket, they can at least take heart in the openness with which selectmen made the move.

Milton selectmen in their release noted that they voted 2-1 to use the fund balance to reduce the tax rate.

It didn't work that way in Lebanon, at least not a few years ago it didn't.

In fiscal year 2011-12 and 2012-13 selectmen transferred $300,000 each year from the fund balance to reduce tax hikes.

What's so striking between the two towns' approach is that in Milton they had a vote, they had minutes of the vote and even a press release.

In Lebanon, no (reported) vote, no minutes, no press release. And later, they even had a "no comment" from a selectperson who was there.

It sort of happened, as they say, in the ozone, or as Karen Gerrish would say, "It is what it is."

Just so everyone is clear on this, the Lebanon boards of selectmen involved in the two withdrawals are those who served in fiscal year 2011-12 and fiscal year 2012-13, Bob Frizzell, Ronal Patch and Gerrish; and Frizzell, Gerrish and Jason Cole, respectively.

When The Lebanon Voice inquired by email of how this happened Gerrish simply ignored the query, not surprising as at the time last spring she was involved in a primary battle with The Lebanon Voice editor Harrison Thorp.

Maybe since she's now in Augusta after defeating Thorp in the primary and Bettie Harris-Howard in the general election last November, she'll relent and tell us how those votes went down. We'd still love to know, Ms. Gerrish!

But the worst part about what Gerrish and the other selectmen did was that those two withdrawals from the fund balance put Lebanon in a bad financial position, according to the town's auditor, especially the second one which put it at just barely over $1 million, a level unable to sustain fixed expenses by the town for a period of even three months, a timeframe urged by municipal planners.

Meanwhile, we'll give kudos to the Milton Board of Selectmen who were very upfront about their vote on using the fund balance to reduce their tax rate.

And of course kudos to post-Gerrish Lebanon boards who have avoided hitting up the fund balance to reduce taxes altogether.