Vote No On April 25

To the Editor:

Once again, our town’s Board of Finance has made absolutely no effort to present the Newtown taxpayers with a reasonable budget. As it does every year, it has saddled us with its annual 6.5 percent increase, resulting in a proposed mill rate of 27.80. At this continued rate of increase, our mill rate will be 29.61 within a year and 31.53 within two years.

Given this entirely unacceptable attempt at fiscal responsibility by our Board of Finance, I have listed a few ideas that hopefully might spark some thought by our board when they are forced to sharpen their pencils following the budget’s rejection by the town’s voters on April 25.

First, salaries and benefits increases should be limited to the national average of 3.3 percent, resulting in a savings of $1.47 million. Second, the contingency should be maintained at its current level, reducing the proposed budget by $150,000. Third, proposed health insurance cost increases should be reduced from 9 percent to 4.5 percent, by requiring employees to pay higher deductibles and increased co-payments, resulting in a $114,000 budget savings. Next, the proposed Queen Street survey should be abandoned, saving the town $40,000. Any survey will simply show that the traffic along this major thoroughfare is too heavy and is traveling at too high a rate of speed. If the town feels it must spend this money, spend it on hiring another police officer to patrol this street. Finally, do not increase the Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers budget, resulting in a $45,000 savings.

By adopting these five changes, the proposed budget would be reduced by over $1.8 million.

The next opportunity to reduce costs is by refinancing the town’s existing bonds. If $60 million in bonds were refinanced at current 30-year bond rates (4.73 percent), the resulting annual principal and interest payment would be less than $3.8 million, compared to the town’s current annual debt service of $8.4 million. While I am not suggesting that all of Newtown’s bonds should be refinanced, this does show it is possible that up to $4.6 million could be reduced from the proposed budget via a bond refinancing. Adding this amount to the five recommendations above would result in a total proposed budget expense reduction of almost $6.5 million, which is the exact amount of the proposed increase in the 2006-2007 town budget.

Again, the taxpayers of Newtown deserve more of an effort by our Board of Finance to at least make some attempt to hold the line on taxes. Until this occurs, it is the responsibility of every Newtown taxpayer to reject this proposed budget on April 25.

 Phil Dinielli

9 Copper Creek Circle, Newtown                            March 29, 2006