Caught in A Blizzard

WHEN THE snow began to fall Saturday afternoon, Conrad Fagone, the city's commissioner of public works, began to round up his cadre of snowplow operators. It was an easier job than usual--he only had to get in touch with half his employees.

Proposition 2 1/2--the rash, extreme tax cut approved a year ago by Bay State voters--had thrown yet another monkey wrench in the workings of city government. Fagone and his DPW crews were operating at half speed this weekend, and as a result the city's streets were unnecessarily slick and dangerous, and the city's public schools needlessly closed. And it will be worse next time, for the DPW budget is now drained. "It's going to be an enjoyable winter," Fagone said with a grim chuckle. "From now on, we're just going to watch it fall."

There may still be a way out, though. The State House of Representatives last week passed a bill that would give the Cambridge City Council the power to override 2 1/2 and levy new taxes, and sent the bill to the Senate. We urge the Senate to adopt the measure, the governor to sign it, and the city council then to use its newfound powers to override the veto.

The bill applies only to Cambridge, which is fitting. Though voters across the state approved the bill by better than a two-to-one margin, Cambridge citizens had the foresight to buck the trend and defeat the legislation by about the same margin. All the special legislation now before the state would do is give Cambridge voters what they have already asked rora fiscally sound, well-managed and efficient city, with well-plowed streets.