A majority of the Board of Aldermen revealed its disregard for Newton’s thoughtful voters a few weeks ago by refusing to put a debt-exclusion override question on the May 20 ballot. We heard that a debt exclusion would confuse the voters. We heard about the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) over and again. Apparently only one ballot question, regarding only a general override, is all us simple folk can understand.

You’d never know that this dreaded debt exclusion was heralded by the mayor’s own Blue Ribbon Commission as key to helping Newton out of our financial woes. Debt exclusions are used by an overwhelmingly majority of Massachusetts cities and towns to fund capital projects in a smart and transparent way. This is the same funding mechanism that many of our own aldermen applauded two years ago as responsible, common sense.

But today, a debt exclusion is seen by the mayor and most Aldermen as an insidious log across the tracks, a financial gimmick (David Cohen, Newton TAB, 3-5-08) apparently designed to stop the NNHS locomotive.

Not every alderman feels this way. Nine aldermen — Brandel, Freedman, Harney, Johnson, Linsky, Mansfield, Parker, Sangiolo and Swiston — voted to give the electorate an opportunity to show good judgment. They see debt exclusions as a vital step on the path to closing our structural deficit and to keeping our tax increases under control.

The debt exclusion — part of the override proposal developed by aldermen Brandel and Sangiolo — was the only tool on the table that promised a new way of addressing our budgeting issues. Debt exclusion dollars cannot be hijacked by the mayor. Debt exclusion dollars don’t add to our structural deficit. Everything else under consideration mindlessly feeds this deficit by growing headcount. Any new cash given to the mayor via general override can be allocated at his discretion, so regardless of how a spending plan is presented and sold to the public, we still just have to trust him. (How has that worked out for us so far?)

Enough hand-wringing about a debt exclusion. We now have a general override request for $12 million coming to the ballot on May 20. How should we vote? The mayor and school superintendent promise devastating cuts to our schools and our municipal operations without this override. I have a third- and a sixth-grader in the Newton public schools, and school cuts will impact my kids immediately. How shall I vote?

From a micro perspective of short-term self-interest, I say we must do whatever we can so we do not compromise their education. The mayor is counting on parents across the city to trumpet this sentiment. He wants to do what he wants to do, including increasing city staffing levels (driving up our structural deficit) and surreptitiously funding NNHS with operating funds passed through the Capital Stabilization Fund.

If the override fails, my sad fear is that the mayor will select the most obvious and painful targets and cut them to the bone. Then he’ll respond to the public outcry by asserting that the voters made this happen by refusing the general override. His hands were tied! Next year, he’ll believe that we will give him whatever money he asks for, as we’ll be stinging from the sharp cuts of fiscal 2009.

From a macro perspective of our long-term health as a city, I believe that more money with no smart plan for economizing will leave us in even worse straits next year — and the year after that, and the year after that. A general override, especially one that gives our Executive and School Department all the money they request, simply feeds the monster and contributes to, rather than reduces, our structural deficit. Our city finances are in big trouble, and the override on the table makes things worse.

Alderman Marcia Johnson recently docketed an item requesting that the mayor, the president of the Board of Aldermen, and the chairman of the School Committee assemble a working group to identify short-term tactics and longer-term strategies that will make Newton more financially efficient and effective. She has asked that as much work as possible be completed before Newton citizens are asked to vote on an override. This request essentially asks that the passage of a general override be linked to a specific, well-articulated plan for how our future spending will depart from our dysfunctional spending history.

So will I vote for the general override? Here is my own resolution: I might vote Yes, if the triad identified by Alderman Johnson comes through in a meaningful way before May 20. Their work must convince me that no spending item is sacred, and that every cost-saving measure will be pursued. They must demonstrate how they’ll close the structural deficit by making both revenue and spending changes. Only this will balance my micro and macro concerns.

On the other hand, I’ll vote No, if all I have with me in the voting booth are the hypnotic strains of the Administration Chorus singing, “Trust me, trust me.” Not this time.

Steven Siegel has been a resident, taxpayer and voter in Newton for 19 years.