Issue Position: Social Services

Issue Position

For many years, Framingham has been a generous host to a wide range of governmental, public safety, health care, educational, religious, recreational and social service agencies, facilities and institutions, most of which are tax-exempt. Whether it is caring for the elderly and frail, providing higher education, offering support to the vulnerable among us, allowing for spiritual respite -- those activities are deeply rooted in our community. The drain from escalating costs on sustaining municipal services, though, has strained the town's relationship with its tax-exempt institutions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the rise of social service providers and facilities. Compounding the friction is the sense that agencies are increasingly invoking the Dover Amendment, which exempts non-profit entities from standard zoning laws, to pursue their plans but which results in anerosion of home rule and the ability of Framingham to plan for and safeguard the rights of all of its citizens.

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