Clarifying IPN’s Position

To the Editor:

I would like to clarify the misrepresentation of our IPN platform in the October 5 Newtown Bee article “GOP Candidate Details His Views On IPN Platform And Endorsement.”

It was reported that IPN platform position prioritizes school spending over municipal projects and that “all school requirements should come before municipal requirements” and our position is to pit one side against the other.  This is not the position of IPN.  

IPN’s position is to create a budget process that requires justification of the annual expenditures.  Utilizing zero-[based] budgeting process will help to justify both education and municipal operating budget.

IPN will create an integrated long-range plan and ongoing planning process, incorporating work already done in the state-required Plan of Conservation and Development. The integrated long-range plan will address the strategic current and future requirements of Newtown concerning municipal services and infrastructure, education, planning and zoning, economic development, recreation, environmental issues, agricultural support, tourism, traffic planning, cultural arts and tax methodology. 

We also believe the five-year Capital Improvement Plan needs to be reevaluated to maximize spending of our valuable tax dollars by accelerating school repairs and recreational projects with the goal of completing them as soon as possible. This will include expansion of the high school, repairs to the middle school (unless a different course of action is identified) and to the elementary schools, construction and/or renovation of playing fields and the construction of a recreational facility at Fairfield Hills. We are also planning on performing a cost analysis on the construction of a freestanding Senior Center.

We do not believe a new town hall should be a priority for Newtown as other viable options for municipal office space were not explored and borrowing for the new town hall on FFH impacts funding of all future capital projects. The Board of Finance, with authorization of the Legislative Council, has created a self-imposed 10 percent debt cap for annual capital expenditures therefore all debt service previously approved further delays any new expenditures. 

Our recommendation to use the 2001 bond appropriation for FFH to fund the multipurpose P&R facility (in the current five year CIP) instead of the new town hall was dismissed by the Legislative Council and the first selectman in February. Now, the voters will be asked to approve additional funding for this project.

We believe that ongoing long-range planning process will identify how we can maximize our tax dollars to address the school and municipal needs and allow us to improve our CIP by creating a timeline and appropriate benchmarks. This will benefit all of Newtown. To date, the Band-Aid approaches and delaying the completion of necessary capital projects have resulted in increased cost to every taxpayer. The debt service in our annual operating budget continues to increase significantly.

We do not believe the current strategies are effective and as long as our current administration insists on going along with the same old strategies, Newtown’s capital costs will continue to increase our future debt burden. 

Po Murray

Legislative Council Candidate District 2

Independent Party of Newtown

38 Charter Ridge Drive, Sandy Hook                       October 10, 2007