To The Editor:

The Legislative Council has essentially ignored the NO vote by Newtown residents at the last referendum.

The Council’s $400,000 reduction to the large increase in the $96,000,000 Board of Education Budget is little more than a rounding error. Don’t forget that the Board of Education unanimously approved the Superintendent’s requested budget untouched. Then, prior to the first referendum the Board of Finance only made a $125,000 reduction followed by no reduction at all by the Legislative Council.

Years ago, when I was a member and Chair of the Board of Education, several times the Legislative Council made reductions of $400,000 or more to our requested budgets which were about 1/3 the size of the current one. We were educating about the same number of students as now and with good results, but of course we had fewer high salaried administrators.

Concerning the Selectmen’s budget, the Council only reduced half the cost of the police officer that they along with the Board of Finance originally added despite the Selectmen’s reduction of the new officer. Plus, they foolishly reduced the road budget by $125,000. They made a few other cuts to reach the same $400,000 reduction to a much smaller budget than the Board of Education’s.

Unfortunately, we can’t vote because we are away and at the time absentee ballots were not available but we do urge everyone to vote "no."

Herb Rosenthal

Newtown