It’s not always about the money…

During the past several years, many cities and towns in Massachusetts have had to address the problem of insufficient revenues to provide the level of services to which residents had become accustomed. When Proposition 2 ½ overrides fail (as a majority have), town managers and mayors have been forced to lay off employees, leave vacancies unfilled, and ask remaining employees to do more with less. Their capacity to innovate has been tested, and many of those employees who report to them have performed admirably under radically changed conditions.