Writing about Lancaster, Massachusetts

Photo by Randy Laybourne on Unsplash   FACT CHECK:   The town's post today is wrong --  the town definitely could use ARPA funds to balance this years budget: "revenue replacement" is an allowed use, and towns can claim a standard allowance for revenue replacement, without any need to show a loss, of up to $10 million.  The Treasury's standard allowance for "revenue replacement" made the town's entire ARPA award available for this purpose in early 2022.  Other towns have already used their ARPA funds this way.  If the budget was formulated around this critical misunderstanding, maybe we SHOULD take a step back and look at it again.  The latest in the Town's "Two Facts and a Fib" series is incorrect.

  Photo by Chris Arthur-Collins on Unsplash   "This is the moderator's meeting, his rules, knowing full well that it is on the ballot five days later, he made the decision as is his right, to not vote on an item because it's going to be voted on by a larger group of people, arguably, five days later."  - Steve Kerrigan, 4/19/2023 

  Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash "No-excuse early voting-by-mail" became a permanent voting option for everyone in Massachusetts after the pandemic.  It works well!   You do have to sign-up once a year, so even if you signed up last year don't forget to sign up again for this year.