Vote No Until Funding For New Town Hall Is Removed From Budget

To the Editor:

If your readers are confused by differences between this letter and information provided to this newspaper by town officials since yesterday’s referendum, please understand that since two weeks ago, I have reviewed all facts, figures, signage and even this letter with town hall officials to ensure accuracy before sharing it with you. This means I will always be one changed story behind, so please don’t hold it against me.

Until now, nearly all of Newtown’s taxpayers were unaware of a $436,450 debt service line item in the proposed budget, which, if approved, will allow town leaders to borrow $6 million with $3 million of it to be combined with $7 million borrowed in January to build a new town hall at Fairfield Hills, with a price tag of $10 million and probably more.

In the 2003 referendum, Newtown’s taxpayers legally rejected the administration’s plan for the Fairfield Hills campus, including the new town hall idea. Since then, the town made repairs and improvements to Edmond Town Hall, which has large spaces not used for town business today that can be converted to offices when necessary. But town leaders want to spend $10 million on a new town hall anyway, and the project has become their top priority.

If this budget is approved, the town will use the $10 million in funds borrowed this year to build their new town hall, even though taxpayers, who are the rightful owners of the campus, have not approved the project!

A lot of people and organizations have been searching for ways to prevent town leaders from moving ahead with their own, unauthorized plan. But short of costly legal action, this little hidden line item in the proposed budget may be the only way to get town leaders to understand that “No” means “No.”

According to Ben Spragg, Newtown’s finance director, forcing the town to remove the $436,450 line item from the debt service in this budget doesn’t guarantee that a new town hall won’t be built because the town might borrow the money anyway betting that the public will approve the debt service in next year’s budget. But if we make it clear now to town leaders that any budget that includes any funding for a new town hall will never be approved by voters, then the town will know that it risks defaulting on any loans that public doesn’t approve.

If this budget is approved with the town hall funding in it, a new and unnecessary town hall will be under construction by this time next year. And soon after, it is likely that town leaders will come asking for more funding to pay for the rest of the master plan that the public rejected in a 2003 referendum.

If you agree that town leaders should not spend $10 million on a new town hall, vote No until they remove any town hall funding line items from the budget.

Kevin Fitzgerald

24 Old Farm Hill Road, Newtown                                  May 23, 2007