YACK on: To spend or not to spend
Grant Sanders
Ihave to applaud the Board of Selectmen and the administration this year. I've been paying attention to the budget process since the middle of October and since that time, it appears as though the powers that be have been whittling away at costs and are actually trying to present the voters of Nantucket with a budget

that does not include an override. This is not an easy thing. As the island grows and changes the needs of its citizens grow and change as well, and for the most part that means an expansion and metamorphosis in the cost of running

the town.

But not this year. Hopefully. Or not. Depending upon which side of the fence you sit. (I sit on the fence, myself.)

Nantucket is unique in many ways, as we all know. It is the only town, county and island with the same name in the US. It's the only municipality in the Commonwealth that runs its own nursing home, airport and skate board park. It manages a scallop fishery that brings in, in total, the proceeds of one medium sized home sold here each year. We have more than our share of people just getting by, and even more of our share of people just getting a new Mercedes Benz SUV every season because last year's is the wrong color. We live on an island where people from other places come every summer and spend millions of dollars on shell driveways and flowering cherry trees and we can't seem to find $160,000.00 to run an adult day care center for people who can't go anywhere else. We have people out in 'Sconset willing to spend over $18 million to move thousands of cubic yards of sand nearly two miles and then watch Mother Nature move that very same sand back to where it once was, and we can't seem to find enough money to send the basketball team to Chatham and back. Screwy, huh?

And, as I said, I'm on the fence on all this stuff. I really don't like spending money. But I also hate not being able to spend it when we need to.

Every year, it seems, we need to raise taxes through a Proposition 2-1/2 override in order to pay for all of the things the town does. For those of you who do not understand how a proposition 2 1/2 override works, here's a quick explanation:

Um…I can't really tell you.

Unfortunately, you need to have a brain like Rick Atherton or Matt Fee to understand the subtle nuances of the thing, but suffice it to say, Proposition 2 1/2 is a way for the taxpayers to keep local governments from writing big fat blank checks and raising taxes over a set amount per year.

And it works relatively well - on Nantucket. Everywhere else, cities and towns have rather high property taxes compared to Nantucket, which gives rise to the erroneous assumption that our taxes are low. They are not low. They are reasonable. Every other town in Massachusetts is paying through the nose for property taxes and getting a break on gas, groceries, extension cords, toilet seats, dog collars, hamburgers and oil changes. We, on the other hand, are getting a break on property taxes and are paying through the nose for gas, groceries, extension cords, toilet seats, dog collars, hamburgers and oil changes. It all evens out, now doesn't it?

Back to the BOS and their desire to live within their means. As I said before, I sit on the fence about this whole budget trimming issue. On the one hand, I'm a taxpayer and I like the idea of my taxes only going up in small increments. On the other hand, I see, first hand, how the people of this island need services. So I would like every program to be completely, unequivocally, fully, substantially funded.

(This is one more reason I'll never run for selectman. You have to be King Solomon every year and cut the proverbial baby in half. Problem is, no one likes a tax cut, a tax hike or half a baby. Go figure.)

But I have a solution: Privatization. Essentially, make it someone else's problem. Someone smarter and better at these things than a government run essentially by poorly compensated citizen volunteers.

First, privatize Our Island Home. We spend close to $2 million per year on that place and I'm not sure a private group with experience in running an efficient, caring, comfortable and professional nursing home might not be able to do a better job for less money. My dear old dad is in one such facility off island and his care is exceptional. Wonderful, in fact. And my taxes do not go up as a result.

But nursing homes are not the only thing we could privatize. How about privatizing the airport? Get rid of that group of commissioners and get a company in there that knows how to move people. Let's privatize the DPW and get folks in there who can sign onto a fixed-price long term contract to keep the roads passable and the waste flowing. Then let's privatize the schools and get some Harvard Ed School geniuses in there to make our kids 82 percent smarter while cutting cost by 28 percent. And while we're at it, let's privatize visitor's services and get some major hospitality industry giant (like Disney) in here to ensure that our visitors have a Maximized Enjoyment Experience®.

Boy, that seems like a lot of work hiring all of those outside, off-island companies and then making sure they do the job they're supposed to. Maybe it would be easier if our taxes just went up by 10 percent.

(I said I was on the fence.)

YACK On. I

Grant Sanders is the host YACK, the Nantucket Online Community at www.yackon.com and he had a tough time deciding what to have for breakfast this morning, too. His views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stnce of Ihe Nantucket Independent. Or his wife. Hmmm… Waffles, maybe? Waffles are delicious.