Opinion: How Marion’s spending adds up
To the editor,
The Marion town budget exceeds $23 million this year; nearly $9,500 per household. That’s a lot — especially considering the median tax bill is far less.
Marion has a large inventory of expensive summer homes and the town eagerly spends that revenue. It's unsustainable, so how did we get to this?
Easy: Literally one spending program at a time.
As an example: at the annual meeting on May 10, town residents approved the spending of $200,000 of certified free cash on the enterprise (user fee-funded) sewer system. It’s a cash back program for homes with sewer connections — basically $10 to $12 each month against sewer bills that run from $150 to $250 per month.
Not much for an individual — it likely won’t even cover your next “Dunkin’ run” for bagels and coffee — but added up, it's another $200,000 of town spending.
And that’s how the little village of Marion gets to $9,500 a year per home.
Chris Collings
Marion Planning Board