Both Ends Of An Argument

The Bee tried to conduct an online survey over the weekend and early this week to gauge public sentiment on the proposed $104,453,615 budget that the Legislative Council approved on Wednesday evening, March 31. The written comments of survey respondents showed a distinct divide among taxpayers who believed the spending package either shortchanged Newtown’s public schools or overtaxed property owners. Whether one side of the argument or the other constituted a majority in the survey became impossible to discern when a few persons on both sides of the issue easily overcame the survey’s low-level safeguards against repeat voting. Apparently, the stakes were so high for these few individuals that they decided to trade their in their integrity for the dubious rewards of brazen and aggressive cheating. They voted in bulk. (If our next survey seems less user-friendly to you, you will know who to thank.)

For those of us who believe the financial problems faced by Newtown deserve a response more creative than simple, blatant deception, the budget currently headed for a referendum vote presents a challenge. A three percent hike in the tax rate in a year when so many people have lost jobs and benefits, taken pay cuts, and added significantly to their personal debt seems like the last straw. The 11th hour, $2.5 million reduction in the school budget by the Board of Finance, on the other hand, presents school administrators with the unenviable task of lowering expectations for an educational system that has always prided itself on fostering high hopes.

So, despite the best efforts of cheaters, the inescapable answer from a survey that asks whether we are being overtaxed or underserved is: both! No amount of spin or deception can mask the fact that the town has a great deal of hard work to do at both ends of this argument.

Newtown needs more revenue from sources other than the residential property tax. On Monday, the state legislature’s Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Committee took a step in that direction by endorsing two bills that could generate up to $20 million in new revenue for towns through increased hotel taxes and fees for municipal services. And last week, the community learned that a high tech firm would like to set up shop on Edmond Road — a development that could add $500,000 to $700,000 a year to the town’s revenues. Still, elders on fixed incomes and others of modest means continue to struggle with their tax bills, so we should be prepared to expand local tax relief programs to help them keep in their homes and their hometown.

Newtown also needs to rekindle community support and backing for schools that don’t just make do, but make better futures for their students. So in a year like this one when the school district budget is being squeezed hard, the town has a special responsibility to support the schools in other ways, through PTAs and booster clubs, through volunteer action, through business grants, sponsorships, and services, and even through the simple purchase of a ticket to a football game or a candy bar on the sidewalk outside the supermarket. When a school system makes sacrifices to help the town to draw the line on taxes, we need to reciprocate by doing whatever we can as individuals to help educators make ends meet.

Above all, despite our divisions on the important issues of taxation and education, we need to remember that no matter how high the stakes, we should never trade honesty and integrity for a shortcut to political advantage. Nor should we lose respect for those who, like us, want a better town but may not share our opinions on how to get there.