In response to today's article ("Effort to reopen meals tax debate fails," Nov. 4) reporting the 75-52 Natick Town Meeting vote to not reopen the debate over Natick's recent adoption of a 0.75 percent meal tax, I feel compelled to clarify a point made by the article.
My quote regarding statistics ("lies, damned lies, and statistics"), when put into context, should reinforce a basic principle of public debate: when we as Town Meeting members, or as any concerned citizen or elected official, rely on data to support a position on an issue, then the information presented should be relevant to the specific point or debate at hand. Also, the article implies it was my opinion that the survey's sample size was not big enough to be relevant. In fact, the document itself, published by the National Restaurant Association (NRA), made the following statement (in very small print): "Note: Massachusetts figures are based on 40 responses and are not necessarily representative of the entire state."
The danger with taking one statistic such as "75 percent of restaurants polled reported sales declined in August" and suggesting that this was due to the meal tax coming into effect is incomplete, if not irresponsible. Without including baseline data that compares seasonal trends, cyclical data and local (Natick-based) restaurant survey data, it is too easy to sensationalize one set of numbers in support of one's point. For all we know, the 40 Massachusetts restaurants surveyed by the NRA could have been in Springfield, Greenfield, Southbridge, Fall River and Lawrence!
Our citizens demand transparency, accountability, and leadership in government, and those responsibilities are a two-way street when we, as citizens, govern our own town. Facts should be relevant and reliable. I personally rely on statistics in my work life, and while my quote taken out of context seems to marginalize their value, the fact is that now more than ever we need to make sure we have as much of the relevant data as possible - what the military refers to as "essential elements of information." Only then are we in a position to make the best, most well-informed decisions that we can.
PAUL JOSEPH,
Natick
