No Means No

To the Editor:

The majority of Newtown voters have spoken — twice, they said No to increased spending because they can’t afford more income taken from them. After all, those retired have not had a raise for a long time and most in the private sector have taken significant pay cuts.

Note: A No vote on the budget means No. No is not a code word that means Yes. No does not mean…put more money back in the school budget to teach our children world socialism…like the socialist-progressives of the Independent Party of Newtown like to claim. Talk about the tail wagging the dog.

To those elected to our town government, I would point out that you do not need to hire public relations consultants to communicate. But, if you believe in the US Constitutional principle of “The consent of the Governed,” then you have an obligation to listen to the voters when they give you direction. The voters are communicating, but many are not listening. Note: Communicating does not guarantee that you will get everything your way especially when time and time again facts show that government does not have the fix, all the answers, or even a clue. The problem that I see is your refusal to accept voters telling you: “No You Can’t, Not With Our Money.”

Facts:

1. Our national debt has grown 16 times larger than it was in 1980.

2. Our country’s national debt is 100 percent of our GDP, and Greece’s debt is 150 percent of their GDP. And at Obama’s rate of deficit spending (currently 45 cents of every dollar spent), we will become “bankrupt” like Greece in about four years.

3. We way overspent on our high school addition because of false data and misrepresentation of the facts. Thus people voted for a project without the whole story.

4. Our school population has actually declined by 312 students. That means with our current spending per pupil of $12,000 each, our schools are now getting paid $3,744,000, for supposedly education 312 empty seats. Duh?

5. We had 126 overcrowded at the high school and only needed about six classrooms (21 students per classroom) plus say another six rooms (equivalent) for cafeteria and other space, but we built over 33 classrooms total space. Thus, we overbuilt by some 64 percent, now that money is not available for salaries until we get out of the prolonged recession.

5. The people wanted our own school buses but Janet Robinson and some on the Board of Education ignored them, now those people are communicating in the only way Robinson can’t ignore.

Taxpayers are darn tired of elected politicians telling us “what we have to do” or that more spending and debt will cure a bankruptcy, when it will not. There was plenty of money in last year’s budget. Running with last year’s budget would not endanger one thing. Everyone would still be employed. That is the message voters are communicating.

Daniel Kormanik

178 Hanover Road, Newtown                                           May 21, 2012