Approach
The Board of Selectmen is our Town’s Board of Directors and I believe we must focus on strategic issues and set clear policy direction for the Town Manager to implement. We have accomplished that objective, each year.
When I ran three years ago, I pledged to:
- expand our commercial tax base.
- provide high quality municipal services.
- embody
fiscal restraint coupled with respect
for the taxpayer resulting in a stable tax rate. - ensure an inclusive approach to leadership.
I am pleased to say I have accomplished each!
If re-elected, I will continue to work to ensure a stable tax rate and avoid operational overrides, to plan for the financial and economic development future of our town and to lead and stand tall on issues facing our town.
I pledge to approach the Town budget conservatively. Like you, I want an affordable, high quality community in which we can raise and educate our children and enjoy long into retirement.
To achieve this, we must deal with the challenges that face us, and in particular, our aging infrastructure. I was a strong and vocal supporter of getting the new Sherwood Middle School building off the dime, and today we have a building being completed ahead of time and under budget. Even with the recent defeat of the library plan, I believe that supporting an initiative that leveraged substantial state aid and private dollars, thereby reducing our property tax dollars required, was a prudent and practical approach to solving a problem that doesn’t disappear upon defeat.
Budget Priorities
- Control long-term personnel and retirement costs.
- Regionalize basic services – collaborate with area communities to provide basic services on a regional basis.
- Continue to move the Town to electronic billing to decrease postage and printing costs, realizing some bills are required by law to be paper.
- More completely privatize non-core basic maintenance functions such as grass mowing and landscaping.
- Continue to re-finance our current debt to achieve interest rate savings.
- Take advantage of historically low interest rates to fund the purchase of capital expenditures.
Please join
my
supporters and
VOTE KANE
for
Shrewsbury's future!
Pledge
We need strong leadership on the Board of Selectman, and we also need a selectman who understands municipal finance. Shrewsbury has always been a well managed community, but deep budget cuts at the state level compound our already tenuous local fiscal situation.
I take a reasoned approach when making tough decisions.
- My approach is to choose the path that preserves the fiscal integrity of Shrewsbury while delivering the highest level of service possible in this economic climate.
- I will use my own knowledge and experience to propose alternatives to existing practices and pressing problems.
- I also believe that many others in our community offer creative ideas, and I
look forward to working with them.
- Expansion to our commercial tax base
- Quality municipal services
- Fiscal restraint coupled with respect for the taxpayer resulting in a stable tax rate
- Inclusive approach to leadership - ensuring that those willing to contribute feel welcome to do so
I will have a well thought-out reason for every decision.
My wife and I have become increasingly concerned about the impacts that decreased state aid and local tax revenue will have on our community as a whole and specifically on our schools and municipal services.