Have those who want to be in charge of our town learned any lessons from the property tax initiative?

The vote was 66 percent no, so lesson 1: Shouldn’t town leaders try to find out what the voters think before they vote to tax us?

The entire tax was based on old data with no peer review. Lesson: Obtain an independent review of staff projections if a tax is going to be based on it. Example: The current positive economic equation (Low unemployment + income tax cuts = increased sales tax revenues) will change any projection done before 2017/18.

Don’t start making the case for a tax after town council has voted for it. Lesson: Explain things to the voters before voting to tax us and listen to what is said.

Don’t vote on a tax amount based on publicly negotiating it at a town council meeting. Lesson: Build a tax based on individual pieces using experts or studies like the pavement report.

Town staff was sent out to explain the tax. Lesson: Don’t leave it up to “them” to make the case. “They” failed.

Helpful citizens tried to run the campaign, but without professional overview, the Save Our Town folks cobbled together unfounded concerns and asserted the sky would fall. Lesson: Engage professionals to run the next tax campaign and to advise citizens groups.

The biggest lessons we’ve learned though is both mayoral candidates failed to assess the will of the voters and supported a tax that 66 percent of the voters did not support. Either they have bad advisers or they are out of touch with the voters. Or both. So let’s hope our mayoral and council candidates will have learned some of these lessons before the next big ask rolls around.