City Leaders Stress Opposition To Tax-Cutting Proposition 2 1/2

The Cambridge School Department would be forced to close four schools and the city's fire department would face elimination if Proposition 2 1/2 wins approval from state voters next month, opponents of the tax-cutting measure told a press conference last night.

The high school teaching staff would be trimmed 20 per cent, the athletic program eliminated, and all after-school programs cut from the budget, school spokesman Oliver Brown said.

"Within a few years after Proposition 2 1/2, Cambridge would have a volunteer fire department and a lot more parking lots." Brad Tenney, a city firefighter, told the meeting.

The proposition, Question 2 on the state ballot, is coming under increased attack from municipal officials as the Nov. 4 election draws near. Cambridge Mayor Francis H. Duehay '55, who announced last night a major leafletting and phone effort in opposition to the referendum question, termed the measure "the most serious threat to local control in the history of the Commonwealth."

Spokesman for the city's tenants, elderly residents and public employees all told the press conference that they feared their constituencies would suffer if the legislation, which is supported largely by state business interests, passes.

"One of the first things to go would be the 'luxury' of the city's Rent Control Board." Dennis Mahoney, a spokesman for the Alliance of Cambridge Tenants, said last night.

"This proposition is absolutely outrageous," school committee member Joseph Maynard said, adding that the service cuts would "affect the poor people, the low-income children, all the ones in the state that can least afford it."

Duehay said Bay State voters were "increasingly aware of what the effects of Proposition 2 1/2 would be," adding that recent polls showed support for the measure was eroding.