More Money

To Main Street

To the Editor:

Two weeks ago, my fourth grade son was burned in class at Hawley School. It wasn’t terribly serious, although he’ll have a permanent scar from the burn he received by contact with an exposed section of copper pipe that feeds a radiator in class. That a 10-year-old-kid has a new scar is hardly news. Even that the event took place during class while participating in a group activity is barely noteworthy. The school’s idea of a fix was to lean five or six dry erase boards against the pipe. I would’ve spent $5 at Newtown Hardware on some pipe insulation.

Now, two weeks later, I take a look at the town’s proposed budget. Maybe a new HVAC system is in there. Who’d know? The system is part of an aging infrastructure that had previously been scheduled to be fixed. For years, some of these classrooms have been hot all spring and cold all winter. Why won’t we fix this?

Let’s look at some of the spending proposed in the new budget. By my math, over $106,000 of our tax dollars are slated to go to: Kevin’s Community Center, Children’s Adventure Center, Regional Hospice, Danbury Regional Commission on Children, Women’s Center of Danbury, Ability Beyond Disability, Amos House, Shelter of the Cross, and WeCAHR. There is other spending in this proposal that is equally alarming. Does the town even have the authority to give the revenue raised through taxation to these recipients? An additional $500,000 is proposed to go into the abyss known as Fairfield Hills. We are also carrying a surplus of over $3.3 million. The morality and economics of a municipality budgeting a surplus that equals over 50 percent of the proposed real property tax increase is a topic for another letter (and very troubling).

Our schools are falling apart while we’re being asked to send eight percent more money to Main Street. We deserve a more responsible government.

Joe Duffy

5 Thomas Circle, Sandy Hook                                      March 28, 2007