Garry Miller

Questions and Answers

Question 1: After 40+ years of Prop 2 ½, a very limited ability to pass overrides, steep increases in expenses such as employee benefits and utilities, and a relatively small commercial tax base, Newton faces fiscal challenges not encountered by our peer communities, making it increasingly difficult to adequately fund our schools and other city services. What are your ideas for raising revenues or otherwise addressing Newton’s fiscal challenges?

Ensuring that these services are funded at an adequate level will require exploring all the options available to us, including these and others: - Re-examine the city budget once again for possible savings - Consider grants and public-private partnerships to make tax money go further - Build the tax base by approving thoughtful and appropriate commercial and housing developments on a more expedited basis - Consider a Proposition 2 ½ override when other options have been pursued and found to be inadequate

Question 2: What, specifically, can the City Council do to ensure that lower income residents, young families, and long-term residents looking to downsize, can afford housing in Newton?

The City has recently made changes to make building housing easier, including the revised ADU ordinance, the Village Center Overlay districts to ensure compliance with the MBTA Communities Act, and innovative projects to create affordable housing such as the Armory project. These are positive steps, but are not enough to address the problem of housing availability and affordability in the City. I advocate: - Allowing more housing by right - Simplifying the zoning code so that smaller projects become viable - Increasing staff and improving communication to get projects approved more quickly

Question 3: What is Newton doing to address climate change, how effective are these efforts, and what else could/should we be doing?

While the City is a leader in addressing climate change, we are not yet on track to meet our goal of net-zero by 2050. To do so, we must: - Extend BERDO to smaller buildings to help property owners create a reasonable plan to reduce emissions - Continue to build safer streets for all those who use them - cars, bikes, and pedestrians - Establish a robust maintenance and renewal program for the tree canopy - Encourage more residents to opt in to curbside composting for food waste - Work with utility companies to remove fossil fuel infrastructure from streets when it is no longer needed

Question 4: Government transparency refers to the obligation of a government to proactively share information related to the management of public resources and decision-making; it’s indispensable to accountability and to an informed electorate. A recent initiative conducted by Newton’s LWV identified significant deficiencies in Newton’s local government transparency and specifically with respect to the City’s website. How do you think improved transparency could benefit our city? What improvements would you advocate for to the City website or transparency in general?

It is difficult to find usable information on the City’s website, particularly regarding the actions of the City Council. Information is largely available as hard-to-digest PDFs. This makes it hard for citizens to engage with our government in a meaningful way, allowing inaccurate information and rumors to become prevalent. I would advocate for several steps to improve transparency: - Ensure that City Council minutes identify speakers, and report statistical information on attendance and voting records of our City Councilors - Move beyond PDFs, creating searchable databases - Create online tutorials on the website to aid residents