To the Editor:

After my last letter, I was accused of trying to fail the budget over one line item, when I was trying to facilitate the process by allowing the sticking points to be heard. Props to Pat Llodra for her open door policy – a better way to accomplish my goal. It seemed, writing a budget more people will vote Yes on, was like finding a needle in a haystack. The media's misinterpretation, making the failure synonymous with a lack of desire for increased security is what I was trying to set straight, while keeping comments anonymous to foster sincerity and truth.

The misconception with budget voting – that voting Yes supports the town and the children – automatically presupposes that voting No would be the opposite. Two eloquent letters by Rudy Magnan about how the taxes are going to drive out the people who made this town the incredible place it is, should help those who condemn No-voting parents understand.

Many people see voting Yes as signing the going away cards for Newtown seniors, and the rest of us aren't that far behind. Off the top of your head, can you name three businesses that have closed since last year? We saw it happen in Redding. Many, including retired servicemen had to move and/or go back to work to pay taxes on homes they owned.  Now it's filled with people from the city who never learned how to wave, call the police on anyone with a dog that barks, and crank up noisy lawn equipment at 7 am sharp every Saturday. “If they don't like it they can move”... taxes went up & the “riff raff” moved out. The problem is that those people served this country and the town well. When they were in charge, they kept taxes low and got things done. They were thinking about future residents, before we even got here. 

Margaret Wood's letter (“We Can't All Have What We Want”), reminds us what a budget is. Let's use the energetic spirit of giving we have in this town to implement school programs that don't make it into the budget. We have a huge community energy here, when channeled properly could take tons of pressure off the budget. Chalking it up to 'living in CT is expensive', is a cop out. Sherman and Bridgewater have reasonable taxes, and if you even think that commerce lowers taxes, ask anyone who has lived in New Milford for over a decade. Taxes never go down.

Why would it surprise anyone that people who have owned guns for decades without any incident would get upset when you try to take away their rights to target shoot on their property? I don't like the idea of hunting, but I do understand the practicality of practicing with a weapon to keep skills sharp, so that I never have to see a wounded, bleeding animal stumble out of the woods. Rights never come back. Once they are gone, they are gone.

Carla Barzetti

16 Beaver Dam Road, Newtown                                      May 22, 2013