With the announcement from Selectman Chris Donato that he will not seek re-election to the Board of Selectmen, voters will be asked to choose a new member in the March 24 town elections. Two residents, David Madigan and Paul McCormack, are running for the open seat and have agreed to answer a few questions about their intentions to serve the town of Duxbury. Each was e-mailed the same set of questions and each gave his individual response.

MADIGAN: I have spent much of my career in municipal finance and for the last eight years have worked at Breckinridge Capital Advisors in Boston as Chief Investment Officer.  Our firm is one of the largest Registered Investment Advisors working with individual investor portfolios in the municipal bond market. Currently, I’m serving on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB). The MSRB is the self-regulatory organization that writes the rules to protect municipal investors and, with the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, is responsible for protecting municipal issuers.

As a graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a degree in Accounting and as a graduate of the University of Chicago with an MBA in Finance, I hope to lend my expertise in municipal finance to aid the town in making sound fiscal decisions. Locally, in addition to my service on the Finance Committee and Fiscal Advisory Committee, I’m a member of Holy Family Church and the Duxbury Rural and Historical Society. I have been an adult member of the Appalachian Service Project and have served on the Holy Family Parish Council. I’ve also served on the Westin Farms Homeowners Association Board.  My wife Sarah is a teacher at Alden School, and both of our children, Clarke and Mary Courtney, are graduates of Duxbury High School.

MCCORMACK: I was born and raised in Medford. I received a BA from Columbia University and a MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College. After that, I was employed as an executive in the capital markets areas of Citicorp and Chase Bank in NYC. After more than twenty years on Wall Street, my wife and I moved to Duxbury on a full time basis in 1998 after having summered here since 1986. In 1999, I started at BankBoston, which quickly morphed into FleetBoston. During my time at FleetBoston, I was a senior executive in the Treasury area. After the bank was purchased by Bank of America, I worked for a small financial structuring firm until the financial meltdown of 2008. Since that time I have been essentially retired -- doing the occasional consulting gig.

My two children were born and raised in Montclair, N.J., so I have had very limited dealings with the Duxbury school system, aside from cheering on the sports teams and paying for the schools for the past 27 years.

Why are you running for Selectman?

MADIGAN: I’ve lived in Duxbury for 15 years, and as I became more involved in town affairs, I began to see the need for some long-term capital planning.  In recent years, I have served on both the Finance Committee and Fiscal Advisory Committee.  While serving on those committees, I began working on a long-term capital plan for the town.  In fact, for the past few years, I have presented this capital plan at Annual Town Meeting.  My goal has been to give taxpayers a clear picture of the cost of future building and capital needs. I now believe that a long-term plan for both operating and capital expenses would also benefit the town.

As a Selectman, I would bring this same clear picture about the future trends and projected tax impact of the yearly operating budget proposals.  I would also introduce a five-year projected budget in order to inform taxpayers of the needs of the town and the potential changes in services with a long-term view.  This will be particularly important over the next three years as we go to market to borrow for the current building projects. I love the Town of Duxbury, and I believe my finance background is a strong qualification for me to serve as one of your selectmen.

MCCORMACK: I have always been interested in the politics of the town and now find that I have the time to serve the town in a meaningful way.

During the recent discussions concerning the need for a new police station, new middle and high schools and essentially a new fire station, it became apparent that the leadership of the town was able to “balance the budget” by drastically underfunding the required maintenance of our public buildings. The result is the over $130 million of construction occurring over the next three years and the huge tax increase that this will involve.

What do you see as the most important issue facing Duxbury today and how would you address it as a selectman?

MADIGAN: We are facing some drastic tax overrides to complete building projects in town.  On the Fiscal Advisory Committee, I worked to put in place a forward looking plan for capital expenditures.  I presented this plan annually at Town Meeting to inform residents of the upcoming projects and the capital needs of the town.  Although these projects were known for years, it was unfortunate that all the building projects were needed at the same time.  Now we face the issue of building management and maintenance.  Planning for operating expenses and controlling the costs of town government are the most important issue facing Duxbury.

Duxbury taxpayers should be aware of the longer-term budgeting needs of the town in order to make better informed choices when adding services and making investments. I agree with the plan to hire a professional Building Facilities Manager who will be able to control operating costs and maintain our new high tech buildings to lengthen their expected life. In addition, the Town is paying more for pensions each year to the County Pension plan to fully fund retirement liabilities.  As a selectman, I would work with town staff to build these longer-term, informative budget plans.

MCCORMACK: Mr. Harris of the Finance Committee recently had an article in the Clipper alerting the public to the $66 million unfunded liability of the town (other postemployment benefits) which the town leadership is content to “pay as you go.”  Additionally, the town’s contributions to its employees’ retirement funding has an unfunded liability of over $20 million. This $86 million of unfunded liabilities did not occur over night, but has been caused by an intentional underfunding of the town’s responsibilities in order to “balance the budget.” It is not going to go away. It is time for the town to make some tough decisions concerning a truly balanced budget and begin to whittle away at its unfunded liabilities.

Local taxes are due to rise because of recently approved capital projects, which will the increase each household’s Community Preservation Act assessment.  Seniors and young families are often cited as being the most vulnerable to these increases.  Again and again we’ve heard from residents concerned that they’re being priced out of Duxbury and some of the Town Meeting articles reflect this, i.e. a reduction in the town’s CPC contribution from three to one percent and a real estate tax break for those over 70.  Do you have any ideas to reassure these populations that they will be able to remain in Duxbury?

MADIGAN: The Community Preservation Act assessment was approved to take advantage of the early adopter bonus of 100 percent match for funds raised by the town.  As the years have passed, this match has fallen to below 30 percent.  The Community Preservation Committee addressed some real needs for the town of Duxbury, preserving our only working farm, connecting open space throughout the town, preserving historic buildings like the Tarkiln Center and setting aside funds for affordable housing.  Now that Duxbury is facing large funding overrides for building projects, we may need to reconsider the funding of the CPC.  Too often in the last few years, the CPC has become a “pot of money” for any project in town.  It is time to reevaluate the full three percent funding of the CPC.

I would recommend that we continue to fund the CPC at three percent for another full year and set the money aside for very selective projects that continue in the vein of early uses of the funds.  Next year, the CPC funding should be reduced to offset some of the additional funding costs of the permanent borrowing for the police, fire and school projects.  This would smooth the tax impact of the buildings for all Duxbury taxpayers and provide for funds for projects that will preserve the character and history of Duxbury.

MCCORMACK: Local taxes will be 30 percent higher in three years than current levels, primarily due to the capital projects that are already approved. This, unfortunately, is a fact and no wishful thinking is going to make it go away.

Last year, I was the citizen who presented the Town Meeting article to stop Duxbury from participating in the CPA, which would have stopped the taxpayer from having to pay the CPA surcharge. My rationale was that the state match has dropped from 100 percent to 25 percent and that most of the “easy” conservation properties had been purchased; that the housing allocation was not being effectively used -- it has been a difficult economic environment for the very hard working affordable-housing area. For the people able to qualify for affordable housing purchases, the restrictions on credit have made a purchase practically impossible. And finally, the CPC was using the designated historical funds to put windows in a privately owned church, to repoint the chimneys of a privately owned house and to fix up and put a cupola on a privately owned barn. I firmly believe that public funds should be used for public purposes.

The CPC has proposed exempting the first $100,000 in tax assessment from the CPA surcharge. I support this article. However, I am somewhat dismayed that when the CPA surcharge was voted for by the town in March 2001, the surcharge was on our tax bill in three months, yet should the exemption pass in town meeting and then be approved in the November election, the reduction in the surcharge will not be reflected for 13 months. Three months to increase our taxes, yet 13 to reduce them. And our Board of Selectmen did not blink when told this at their Jan. 23 meeting.

I would be opposed to an attempt to reduce the tax burden for those over 70. The money has to come from somewhere and a reduction of the tax burden for any particular group would involve raising the taxes of another group. While seniors are very vulnerable, and often on a fixed income, many people are in a similar situation. Young families, the future of the town, are being hard hit and to lower senior taxes, only to raise the taxes on young families, does not seem to be a sensible thing to do.

For seniors, many of the fees for town services are at a reduced rate.

As for reassuring the financially vulnerable population in town, I would be lying if I told you that everything would be all right. Your taxes are high, they are going higher and the town must face some difficult choices in the years ahead. The town cannot continue to “balance its budget” by tricks such as putting off required maintenance or ignoring its growing unfunded liabilities.

How would you describe the Duxbury School system?  What do you consider to be its best and least favorable traits?

MADIGAN: We were fortunate enough to have both our children attend Duxbury schools from kindergarten through high school.  One of the major reasons we moved to Duxbury was the success of DHS graduates on statewide tests and college entrance.  We were very pleased with the educational opportunities presented in Duxbury and the successful transition our children had from DHS to college courses.  The system offers a strong program for college-bound students with opportunities to take Advanced Placement courses, which helped my children fill requirements in college.  This success is not just a reflection of the high school but of the entire program from K-12 that builds academic, sport and life skills.  These are the best traits of the schools.

The least favorable trait is that as a public school, the schools need to balance programs with the fiscal reality of budgets and state requirements.  For budgeting, we need to remember that we have a diverse community of seniors, young families and families that have lived in Duxbury for generations.  Our balance needs to be to maintain the high quality of education at a cost that does not change the make-up of our population by pricing any of these residents out of Duxbury.

MCCORMACK: I have had very little interaction with the schools. It appears that Dr. Tantilllo and the School Committee have done an excellent job. The next three years, during the construction of the joint middle/high school should be very exciting, but I am confident that Dr. Tantillo and the system’s staff are up to the challenge.

Why did you decide to call Duxbury home?

MADIGAN: We call Duxbury home and plan to stay the rest of our lives.  When we were looking for a home in the Boston-area, we looked at towns across the South Shore.  When we drove into Duxbury and drove down to the beach, we knew we had found a place where we could live and enjoy daily life in surroundings people look for to vacation.  In researching the schools, we found a strong commitment to education.  After moving here, we got involved in our neighborhood, schools and church and found friends.  We daily celebrate the wisdom of previous Duxbury residents who worked to preserve the best of Duxbury.  I hope to continue the work of preserving the character and history of Duxbury while making prudent improvements in the daily lives of it residents.

MCCORMACK: In 1985 we were living in New Jersey. My wife, who is from Hingham, wanted to get a summer home near the water, close but not too close to her parents (who are now Duxbury residents). We had always enjoyed visiting Duxbury and its beach, so my wife decided on Duxbury and here we are. (This should in no way give the impression that I am not the king of my castle, nor give the impression that my wife is the boss.)