The Harvard Press reported last week on a new proposal for an expanded senior center and additional senior housing that was described as “costing the taxpayer nothing.”
While the proposal is an interesting one, I think we need to move cautiously on any plan that requires the town to give up land or other assets and involves a private entity in the construction and apparently the financing of a project. In particular, I think we need to evaluate carefully any claim that such a project will cost the taxpayer nothing.
It’s not clear to me from the news article exactly how the plan would work, but in my former career in troubleshooting public projects with the Massachusetts Inspector General’s Office, I learned that there is rarely such a thing as a public project that costs the taxpayers nothing.
A few other points that I think should be kept in mind: It was stated that by giving up land, the town would avoid regulations on municipal buildings, such as prevailing wage requirements, resulting in a substantially lower construction cost for the senior center. The building could be built for an estimated $1.5 million.
But whether the town owns the land or not, the senior center construction project would probably be subject to the state’s public building construction law and thus to the prevailing wage law, at least under the attorney general’s interpretation of the construction law. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The public building construction law requires a public bid process, which actually could have the effect of keeping the construction cost lower than simply avoiding payment of prevailing wages.
The Press also reported that under the proposal, the design and planning of the senior center could all be done by volunteer boards and commissions and therefore wouldn’t require money from taxpayers. Does this mean no professional architect for a $1.5 million public building? There are good reasons why state law requires public buildings over $100,000 to be designed by professional architects.
Whenever private entities are involved in the financing, construction, and operation of public projects or facilities, there is a potential for added risks to the taxpayers. We should be mindful of those risks in this case as well.
David Kassel
West Bare Hill Road
