Dear Neighbors,

I wanted to share some information with you about some important upcoming events in Northampton.  But first, let me acknowledge and congratulate all of the graduating seniors at Northampton High School and Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School in this commencement season. I know our young people will continue to bring pride and honor to the City as they take up the next chapter of their lives.

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FY2009 Proposed Budget

My budget proposal for the next Fiscal Year is available online for your convenience.  Simply click on this link: http://www.northamptonma.gov/gsuniverse/httpRoot/mayor/ to go to the Mayor's Office website, and use the navigation bar on the left to view the budget.  The City Council is currently meeting with a number of City departments to learn more about their individual budgets and the impacts of this year's stark fiscal realities.  The Council will vote on the budget in June.  Under our city charter, the Council has the authority to remove funding from the budget, but cannot add to it.  As always, please feel free to contact my office if you have any questions as you read through the budget document.

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Additional School Funding & Strategic Planning

As you no doubt have heard by now, Smith College has made a one-time gift to the Northampton Public Schools of $100,000 for Fiscal Year 2009.  This gift is gratefully received and will allow us to bridge the very significant gap that our school department faces this year.  In addition, a number of our neighbors have been and continue to donate part of all of their tax rebate checks to Northampton Public Schools.  The Superintendent and I are extremely grateful for all the gifts, large and small, that our neighbors are choosing to make at this time, a time that we all acknowledge is a financially challenging one for all of us.

Part of what these gifts will allow us to do is to take the time we need over the next year to convene a Blue Ribbon style panel to participate in thoughtful strategic planning for our school district.  We will be asking this strategic planning team to make recommendations about facilities, faculty, and how to continue to provide the highest possible educational services in a sustainable way, a way that is affordable to our community in the long term.

If you would like to join your neighbors in making donations, please make your checks payable to the Northampton Public Schools, 212 Main Street, Northampton.  The School Committee and Superindent will make decisions regarding the allocation of the funds.

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Important Ballot Initiative Organizational Work

Those of you who read or listened to my budget message will already know that there is a Ballot Question looming in November that could potentially have a devastating affect on communities across the Commonwealth.

This worrisome ballot question would eliminate the state income tax entirely. If that question passes, the state would have to cut $12.7 billion - three times the amount of state aid that cities and towns received for education this year.  The Governor has also proposed local option taxes on meals and telecommunication tax reforms, which could bring Northampton up to $1.6 million dollars, but I do not believe that these changes will pass the Legislature before the income tax referendum is decided. The defeat of the income tax referendum is critical to any discussion of local option taxes.

Locally, citizen activists are organizing to defeat this ballot question.  The first organizing meeting will be on Monday, June 9th at 7:00 at the Florence Community Center--1st floor auditorium.  Please make every effort to come, get informed, and then commit to sharing what you learn with your neighbors. 

If this ballot measure passes it will cripple our ability to provide essential services in the City.  The question proposes to roll back the budget of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to its 1995 level according to the website of the question's proponents.  I don't know anyone who is able to purchase anything today at the same price they could thirteen years ago.  I believe we would do well to listen to former Northampton Mayor and Republican President Calvin Coolidge who said, "Good government cannot be purchased on the bargain counter."   Please join me in actively opposing this ballot question.

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Neighborhood Assessment

Come hear Phil Bess, Professor and Graduate Program Director of the Architecture Program, University of Notre Dame on June 2nd in the City Council Chambers at 7:30.

Professor Bess will be talking about the kind of studio workshop the University of Notre Dame could run for the city, if the city decides to pursue this.

This approach has the potential to have an outsider with no agenda help the community understand some of the most difficult design and development questions and help the community build consensus. The workshop will not proceed, however, unless there is a great deal of interest and support in the community.

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Ribbon Cutting

Earlier today, it was my honor to cut the ribbon at the City's new Water Treatment Facility in Williamsburg, symbolically opening the new plant, although in practical terms, it has been up and running for a short time already.  It is a very impressive facility, which has improved our ability to provide clean, healthy and good-tasting water to residents and visitors to Northampton.  The Department of Public Works has done an outstanding job stepping up to operate this new plant.  It has been a long process, but it was wonderful to celebrate its culmination today.

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Restaurant Week

I hope you will be able to join our friends at the Chamber of Commerce in celebrating Restaurant Week in Northampton, the week of June 2nd.  Fourteen of our fine restaurants have created 3-course menus for the fixed price of $20.08.  For more information, please visit http://www.northamptonrestaurantweek.com/.

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Storefront Art

On Friday June 13th, from 5-8pm, Commonwealth Center for Change will launch its new 'Storefront ART' program at A.P.E.'s new Window Gallery at 126 Main St. in Northampton.

Storefront ART is an exciting new program that supports local artists by working with building owners to creatively use vacant downtown storefronts as temporary artist studio, gallery and performance space.

A stellar line-up of young local artists will present their work in an evening of dance, theater, folk music, video, photography, painting, installation and drawings, not to mention hula hoping and a wandering brass band!

In between the brief performance sections, artists will be on hand to answer questions and engage with the audience in a social evening designed to encourage interaction and conversation. Information will also be available about C3 and Storefront ART.

The event is co-sponsored by the Northampton Center for the Arts and is hosted by the A.P.E. Gallery. A.P.E.

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Forbes Garden Tour

Please mark your calendars for June [14]th, the date of the wildly popular Friends of Forbes Garden Tour.  More information is available at www.forbeslibrary.org

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CET's June 24 Small-Scale Wind Workshop for Residents and Businesses

The Center for Ecological Technology's professional engineer will present the "nuts and bolts" of small-scale wind, including sizing and siting of systems for homes, farms and businesses, energy efficiency measures and available financial incentives. On Tuesday, June 24, at the Cummington Community House, 33 Main St. in Cummington, MA. Registration at 6:00 p.m. and workshop from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. $10 suggested donation. Pre-registration recommended: (413) 586-7350 x 25 or tomasin@cetonline.org. Check www.cetonline.org  for more info. This workshop is co-sponsored by the Hilltown Sustainability Group.

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Stay Tuned......Cable Access Show is coming...

In mid-June, I will tape the first of an ongoing series of shows at the Northampton Cable Access Television Station.  Other Mayors in the Commonwealth also host a cable television show, and I am looking forward to picking up on that tradition.  The format of the show is not fully defined yet, but I look forward to using this medium as another way to share information about this great city with its residents.  In addition to this, you can also listen online to the regular Podcasts I have been doing with radio personality Kelsey Flynn called Ask Mayor Higgins (http://blog.masslive.com/northamptonmayor/).  Kelsey is always looking for more questions, so feel free to email yours to her. And, as always, please continue to bring your ideas, thoughts, questions and concerns to my office.

Thank you for taking the time to read this email update and for your continued engagement in the life of our great city.

Clare Higgins

Mayor