Budget Fact & Fiction

By SHANNON HICKS

Published: May 18, 2007 12:00 am

To the Editor:

There is a lot of misinformation floating around about the budget. Below is information to separate fact from fiction.

Facts: There has already been a total of $1,456,000 cut from the Board of Education budget and $1,385,000 cut from the town side of the budget.

The total mil increase (the increase to your taxes), will be 3.7 percent if the budget passes in the upcoming third referendum. The last time the increase was lower was ten years ago, in 1997-1998, when it was 3.6 percent. Over the last ten years the average increase to the mil rate has been 5.43 percent (numbers from the Finance Office). To compare to other towns, the majority of towns in Connecticut will have increases above five percent (as per a May â07 article in The New York Times).

The Board of Education needed a 6.2 percent increase for the schools just to maintain status quo and cover growth related expenses for the coming year. The current budget to be voted on is now significantly below this number.

Even if the current budget passes, the Board of Education will need to make cuts of $1,456,000. Current teaching positions and any program can be in jeopardy. If the budget does not pass on Tuesday, May 22, the situation will worsen further.

Fiction â Voting No will stop the new town hall from being built. False.

Truth â Voting No will not stop the building of a new town hall. There is no mechanism, when voting, to explain your No vote. A No vote is interpreted as an opinion that the budget is too high. To express town hall concerns contact town officials, write letters and speak at Legislative Council meetings. Voting No will continue to hurt the schools and town.

Fiction â Voting No can help protest a host of frustrations â frustration with town leaders, administrators and politics, anger about a new town hall slated to be built, disapproval of policies, contracts and bonding, etc... False.

Truth â The town referendum is about the annual spending for 2007-2008, the budget to run the town and schools. Voting No out of frustration will just hurt the schools and town. If you want to express your dissatisfaction with something in town, there are meetings at which your voice can be heard or you can call or email town officials. You will have the opportunity this November to elect officials that reflect your positions.

Fiction â Voting No, if you think the budget is too low, can lead to the budget being increased. False.

Truth â The budget amount has never been increased as a result of a failed referendum. The budget will only be cut further. Voting No for this reason will just continue to hurt the schools and town.

Fiction â Our schools are immune to real damage, even when the budget referendum fails. After all, this is Newtown and the schools and town will always be wonderful. False.

Truth â Our schools work on a tight budget. Newtownâs expenditures per student are some of the lowest in the state (136th out of 166 districts). Costs are increasing rapidly for many of the things that our schools need to purchase (e.g., energy and insurance) and Newtownâs population continues to grow, which increases Newtownâs educational costs. The current budget appropriation for education is below what is needed to maintain status quo.

As a result of cuts from the first and second referendum, the schools will need to make cuts that will impact current programs, services and/or staff. However, if the budget fails on Tuesday, May 22, this situation will grow more dire; with further losses in the schools and town.

Right now the 2006-2007 budget increase would be 3.7 percent if the referendum passes. Last year the budget passed on the 3rd referendum with an increase of 4.6 percent.

Fiction â My vote doesnât count.. I donât have time to vote... others will vote so I donât need to.

Truth â Your kids and the community overall are counting on you to vote and help protect the town and schools.

Please Vote Yes on Tuesday, May 22, 6 am to 8 pm.

Michele Hankin

48 Mount Pleasant Road, Newtown Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â May 16, 2007

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Reservoir Rd. does indeed appear to have an interesting history that I often ponder as I hike the Rochambeau Trail. Early on it was apparently part of a main route from the center of the Borough to Taunton, which went up Mt. Pleasant Rd. and then roughly followed a watershed boundary from Mount Pleasant to Taunton Hill. When the current switchback road was built from West St. to Castle Hill in the 1800s, replacing the indirect route through the campground that Rochambeau used, the part of that original route to Taunton now known as Reservoir Rd. became redundant. But on an 1868 town map and topographic maps from 1892 and 1915, it looks like both routes were still maintained as roads. By the time of the 1934 aerial survey of CT, the connection to Mount Pleasant Rd. (maybe called Reservoir Rd. by then since the reservoir is visible) even had two outlets onto Castle Hill Rd. Since it is only shown as a partial dashed line on a 1953 topographic map, it may have stopped being maintained as a passable through road by then. But on a 1963 topographic map, where the section down to Knollwood Dr. had become a normal road again, the other end is shown as a dashed-line road, still with two connections to Castle Hill Rd., and a structure on the east side where one can still find remnants of a house today. Maybe a longtime resident can add comments about what it looked like in the 1950s and 1960s?

Clarity on Reservoir Road and the Rochambeau Trail

Please stop referring to your fellow Newtowners as the Mob. I was at the Legislative Council meeting where Mr. Pisani insulted the intelligence of a room full of Newtown voters; twice, and not in a satirical way. Plenty of new projects have been given the green light - the repurposing of the Taunton Press property is a welcome addition to Town, a new retail center is under construction on Church Hill Rd there are ongoing plans for the existing Fairfield Hills campus. Newtown is a wonderful place to live. Kudos to the Town officials who have managed to grow Newtown and maintain a small town feel, which may mean saying no to development more often than you would like. There will always be two sides to any proposal - different points of view are welcome and essential - name calling adds nothing to the conversation.

Who is Calling Newtowners Stupid?

Appreciate your perspective. Rather than litiate all of your opinions expressed here, here....I would like correct your opinion about the BOS having the final authority on road discontinuance decisions. State statute (CT GS 13a-49), requires the BOS' decision to be approvate by a majority vote at a regular or special town meeting (just like the one Newtown had a few years back to decide to spend the money to build an addition onto the High School). In towns that no longer have any town meetings, that responsibility would fall on the town's representaive government, or legislative body....in Newtown's case, our Legislative Council. Failure to follow this statutory process is but one of the reasons the town/the BOS is being sued.

There are many private roads in Newtown where they property owner owns right to the center line, for example this is often true in the lake communities. Many of these roads predate and do not conform to the Town's roads standard and therefore the Town never accepted them into the Town road system. Does the Town actually own this road?

It’s important to clarify the tone and context of Derek Pisani’s remarks, particularly the satirical line about suing Newtown for "Gross Stupidity." This was clearly a tongue-in-cheek jab at the exhausting culture of legal threats that’s become a staple on the local Facebook Group forums. It was a reflection of frustration over endless regulatory hurdles and obstructionism, and the desire to avoid common sense solutions not an insult aimed at residents. Satire, is meant to provoke thought and highlight the absurdities. If we are unable to distinguish between satire and literal threats, perhaps the comment hit closer to the truth than we’d like to admit. Rather than focusing on Pisanis style, we should be discussing the substance of what he’s pointing out: that Newtown’s progress is being routinely blocked by a small but vocal contingent who seem intent on saying “no” at every turn. They are saying no to any development, no to common sense solutions to crowd control, etc. Newtown deserves leaders who are willing to call things as they see them, even if their language ruffles feathers. That doesn’t mean they lack respect for constituents—it means they care enough to challenge the Mob and push for solutions. Isn't that what we elect people to do? I applaud Pisani's dedication, he certainly has earned my vote. Regardless, let’s not reduce conversation to tone-policing and outrage. Let’s focus on the issues that matter.

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