To The Editor:

In his letter to The Bee last week, Mr Pisani calls the Democrats on the Legislative Council “uncaring” and says we are not concerned if people can’t pay their taxes and “need to get out of Newtown.” Mr Pisani is flat out wrong.

We remind Mr Pisani that he voted in favor of the municipal budget which contributed to this year’s tax increase. He supported his Republican colleagues in a blind cut to the education budget, despite the wishes of dozens of residents who pleaded with the Council not to further reduce education spending. Twenty-eight school positions had already been removed by the superintendent, and the cuts Mr Pisani and his Republican colleagues wanted would have forced mass teacher layoffs and larger class sizes. We Democrats were not willing to do that.

Mr Pisani doesn’t even know how the Board of Education spends its money. In 2024, he admitted he didn’t open the education budget book but somehow knew there was wasteful spending. He then waved around an old news article as proof that school budgets were bloated. His suggestions in 2025 were no better as he brought back the same news article.

The Board of Education budget was passed in a bipartisan fashion by the Board of Education the last two years. The budgets also passed the Board of Finance with Republican support. While these budgets raised taxes more than in years past, Mr Pisani fails to mention this was largely due to massive reductions in state aid and massive increases in health insurance premiums.

Mr Pisani never offered solutions to raise revenues to counteract the national trend of increasing prices. He could not tell us what services he would eliminate to reduce the spending increase. Would he want to lay off teachers and town employees? Close the library a few days a week? Stop mowing baseball and soccer fields? Doubtful.

Instead of attacking us, Mr Pisani would be better served to roll up his sleeves, open the budget books, and suggest ways to reduce spending that don’t impact residents. We’ve been waiting for two years for something substantive from him.

Eric Paradis

Chris Gardner

Democratic Members, Legislative Council