As they head to the polls next week, Rockport residents hold in their hands the opportunity to transform their town.

First, they have the opportunity to arrest the exploding growth in town spending that has staggered taxpayers and has made Rockport unaffordable for an increasing number of families. As I noted here, they also have the opportunity to put into office a new generation of leaders who understand that real change is needed and are prepared to make the hard choices that will be required if we’re ever going to return Rockport to a sustainable level of spending.

To that end, here is what I see as the five votes that matter.

Vote NO on Article 6, the town budget.

As I have noted elsewhere, I was the Budget Committee’s lone vote against the budget, and I can understand why voters might be perfectly fine with a budget containing zero growth from last year. Understand, though, that the nearly flat budget comes almost entirely from one-time savings. Absolutely nothing has been done in any sustainable, structural way to change how the town does its work. Rather than seize multiple opportunities to regionalize, for example, the town added more full-time staff, creating ongoing costs in salary and benefits that are already the largest and fastest growing components of the budget.

Rockport’s Town Manager is already projecting a return to increased spending next year because, again, nobody in a position of leadership here thinks there is any problem with the town spending twice what it spent five years ago.

A “no” vote on the budget will send a powerful message that temporarily holding the line with some one-time budget savings isn’t good enough, and that a genuine rethinking of how we do the work of municipal government is well overdue.

Article 6, it should be noted, is on the back side of the referendum ballot, be sure to turn it over to vote!

 Support Samantha Appleton and Darren Robbins for the three-year Select Board slots.

A “no” vote on the budget isn’t enough, however. Last year, the town’s budget barely passed, and the Select Board’s response was more of the same. Look back at the Board agendas over the past year and you’ll see no sense of urgency, no determination to act, no outside-the-box thinking. 

The Pen Bay Pilot has done a tremendous public service by publishing lengthy interviews with Select Board candidates. Reading these, it is clear that Samantha Appleton and Darren Robbins understand that new thinking is needed and that the path the Board has been on for the last few years is not one that is sustainable going forward. They both deserve your support and your vote; it is hard to see how we make any real changes here in Rockport without real changes to the membership of the Board.

Support Craig Mitchell for the one-year Select Board slot.

I have had the pleasure of serving on the Budget Committee with Craig and he has brought a valuable voice to town government. He has asked hard questions along the way, so hard, in fact, that he has been forced to file multiple Freedom of Access Act requests to get information, like the salary data for town employees, that should be public knowledge (I’ve submitted a couple of FOAA requests myself for which I have gotten no response — this is what we all are up against). He is the ideal person to help focus the Board on skyrocketing spending, something that doesn’t concern the current board in the slightest. 

Adding Craig, Samantha, and Darren to the Board will mean an entirely new day for Rockport’s town government. It is critical that all three are elected.

Support Richard Mitchell for Budget Committee.

Speaking of asking hard questions, Rick has been a constant presence in the Budget Committee hearings and is a consistent, thoughtful voice for a return to reasonable levels of spending. He has not shied away from making clear the impact that the recent spending spree has had on town residents and is ready to act. He would be a terrific addition to the Committee.

So, there you have it. We need a new direction, and that new direction is going to require new people at the helm, along with a clear mandate from voters that enough is enough. These five votes will send exactly that message.

And if you need any additional reminder why such a dramatic change is needed, remember that you are voting at the library, with all the traffic and parking issues that this entails, because under our current leadership, we have added so many town employees that the Town Office’s Richardson Room, where we used to vote, had to be converted into office space for all of them.

Think about that on your way to the polls on Tuesday and vote accordingly.

Steve Bowen lives in Rockport and serves on the Budget Committee. His views are his own.