Sticking Together Through

An Extended Budget Process

To the Editor:

These are difficult times in Newtown and elsewhere, and I agree with town leaders and taxpayers that the proposed 2009-2010 budget must be very, very lean. Yet the proposed budget that town leaders plan to present to voters is flawed and should not be approved. And because town leaders will not make changes until taxpayers force them to, I am asking all of Newtown’s taxpayers who want an end to wasteful spending and who support education to join together to change history.

Town leaders have overcompensated on the cuts in education despite these economic times. Even as a critic of school spending in the past, it is clear to me that we need to restore education funding to avoid bigger problems later on. The cuts as proposed are far more severe than most people understand. These cuts are real and their impact on our schools cannot be easily reversed when the economy turns around. The increase we need is only a third of what it was last year.

Meanwhile, on the town side of the proposed budget, our town leaders continue to betray the public trust by including “back-door funding” of the Fairfield Hills development project that will cost taxpayers over $5 million in new, unauthorized borrowing and possibly millions more in town resources that are reassigned to work on Fairfield Hills, all without taxpayer approval.

I understand the predicament of those voters who care about education and think that by supporting the budget, it will pass on the first attempt preventing the Legislative Council from cutting education funds further. But using your vote to keep a bad budget from getting worse doesn’t really help Newtown. Instead, put that vote to good use and hold out for a budget everyone can celebrate.

How hard can it be for taxpayers with a common cause to stand together and defeat three or four proposed budgets this spring before approving the one we asked for? It means not backing down when things get ugly. When town leaders blame this person or that group, we vote No. When they make the usual statements about the cost of multiple referendums and how Newtown’s bond rating will suffer, we vote No. Isn’t our children’s education worth a few extra trips to the middle school?

By sticking together, our elected representatives on the Legislative Council will eventually realize that this very large and stubborn group of taxpayers is serious about only supporting the responsible budget they asked for. The Legislative Council will then remove the illegal FFH funding from the budget and restore all the education funds we asked for. And finally, the “people’s budget” will pass overwhelmingly with the lowest budget increase in many years.

Let’s make this the year.

Kevin Fitzgerald

24 Old Farm Road, Newtown                                      March 26, 2009