Asking Hard Questions

To the Editor:

What to do when the chairman of the Board of Finance asks you the hard questions? Why, attack the person asking the questions. He is meanspirited, uninformed. Attack his integrity and motivation.

The Board of Education budget process must be forthright and transparent. How often in these past years have cuts in the school budget been offset by “unanticipated revenues”? Every year there are threats of teacher layoffs and program cuts, but even after reductions to the budget occur, are teachers laid off or are programs terminated?

Each year the town is made to “squirm” and that is not a “joke.” Budgets must be made with hard numbers, not emotional rhetoric.

John Kortze has served this community well for many years on the Legislative Council and the Board of Finance. He is asking the questions that every Newtown taxpayer should be asking, including those taxpayers who serve on the Board of Education.

James Reilly

Grays Plain Road, Sandy Hook                                      June 28, 2005