Letter: Vote Markey for Senate

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To the Editor:

Recently, we learned that frequent Berkshire visitor, U.S. Senator Ed Markey, has another Democratic challenger. Last time it was Rep. Joe Kennedy. This time it's Rep. Seth Moulton. [Alex Rikleen of Acton, a former teacher, is also running.]

I'm not against primaries, but as WBUR in Boston said: "Moulton is running on age, but what else?" Joe Kennedy had the same platform — and Massachusetts voters rejected him.

It seems to me a candidate's age is irrelevant if he's doing the job, and Ed Markey is doing his job. Very well, in fact. As I said, he's no stranger to the Berkshires, and he's fighting Trump's fascist policies in Washington every single day.


He is also the Senate author of the Green New Deal, and his progressive policies have led to widespread support among young voters. The online publication The Hill has called him "an icon to Gen Z activists."

But there's another reason I oppose internecine Democratic warfare this year. The Trump administration is posing the biggest threat to our democracy and our freedoms since the Civil War, and we should be devoting our precious time, energy, and money to that fight, not expending it on primary elections where a candidate's age is the only issue.

This is a nation on the brink. We have serious problems, and we need serious people to deal with them. Senator Ed Markey is serious. That's why he has my vote.

Lee Harrison
Williamstown, Mass.

 

 


Tags: election 2025,   municipal election,   


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Mount Greylock School Committee Takes Another Look at FY27 Budget

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock School Committee on Tuesday decided to bring a fiscal year 2027 budget to Thursday's public hearing that maintains level services while seeking double-digit percentage increases in the assessments to each of the district's member towns.
 
The committee knew those increases were coming from a draft budget it saw at its March 3 meeting, but the numbers changed over the last couple of weeks — driving up the anticipated assessment to Williamstown and leading to a slight reduction for the budget hit to Lanesborough.
 
The draft budget in front of the committee on Tuesday includes a 13.61 percent increase in the district's assessment to Williamstown and a 10.99 percent hike for Lanesborough.
 
In real dollars, those assessment increases translate to $2,018,000 and $751,000, respectively versus the FY26 assessment to pay for the current school year.
 
Williamstown's assessment is up 0.9 percent from March 3 to March 14 while Lanesborough's is down 0.8 percent, in part because, per the regional agreement, each town pays the operating cost of its elementary school (and splits the cost of the middle-high school based on enrollment). Some of the increased cost in the last two weeks impacts Williamstown Elementary more than Lanesborough Elementary.
 
Tuesday's draft is likely to be relatively unchanged when the School Committee holds its annual public hearing on the budget on Thursday, the same night the committee likely will vote on the final FY27 budget — and resulting assessments — it will send to each member town's annual town meeting in the spring.
 
Superintendent Joseph Bergeron told the committee that the administration and the elected body's Finance subcommittee had been making modest progress on mitigating the assessment increases to both member towns before the district received two gut punches.
 
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