There Has To Be A Better Way!

Norwood residents support public safety staffing. That is not the question, and it never was! The question is whether a permanent tax override is the right way to fund public safety staffing, especially when the town has not shown that every reasonable alternative has been exhausted. A vote against the appropriation is not a vote against police officers, firefighters, or emergency response. It is a vote for better planning, clearer priorities, and a more disciplined budget process.

Brookline had been raised as a comparison point of a town that is fully staffed, but Brookline’s budget should not be treated as a simple model for Norwood. Brookline’s FY2026 financial materials show a police operating budget of approximately $21,041,164 with 140 rostered police officers, and a fire operating budget of approximately $21,063,066 with 158 rostered firefighters. Those figures demonstrate that Brookline operates at a very different scale. They do not prove that Norwood must adopt the same spending approach, the same staffing assumptions, or the same tax strategy.

Norwood’s circumstances are different. Its tax base, municipal structure, service demands, reserves, and long-term financial obligations are not identical to Brookline’s. Comparing one town’s police and fire budgets to another town’s budget without fully accounting for population, density, call volume, labor contracts, facilities, benefits, pensions, debt, and available revenue can lead to the wrong conclusion. A large Brookline budget does not automatically justify a Norwood override.

Before asking residents to approve a permanent increase in property taxes, Norwood should first present a full and transparent plan showing why the need cannot be addressed through phased hiring, internal reallocations, use of available free cash or reductions in lower-priority spending. Residents deserve more than an all-or-nothing choice. They deserve a serious explanation of what alternatives were considered, why they were rejected, and how the town will prevent this same problem from returning in the future budget before we are faced with another Prop. 2 1/2 as they claim we will be. There has to be a better way. Public safety staffing is a real concern but so isn’t the financial struggle facing today’s families, elderly and veterans, but a permanent override should be the last resort, not the first solution. If the town can identify staffing needs over multiple years, then it can also identify a multi-year funding plan that prioritizes police and fire within the existing budget before turning to taxpayers for a permanent increase.

The fairest position is this: support the men and women who protect Norwood, but do not support a budget process that places residents in a corner. Norwood should fund public safety responsibly, transparently, and sustainably. Until town leaders provide a clearer plan that proves an override is truly unavoidable, residents should vote no and demand their town administrators do a better job finding an alternative.

Respectfully,

Mark “Tank” Nardelli

District 7 TMM

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