A Debate In Which Increases Are ‘Cuts’

To the Editor:

I attended the special Legislative Council meeting on May 10, after the second budget referendum defeat. I’d like to share my thoughts.

A fellow citizen stood up to “speak about significance,” as he put it. Obviously referring to the reference to a “statistically insignificant” margin of defeat after the first referendum, he asked the council reduce the increase by half, or three million dollars. I agree with this neighbor’s point that the council’s previous reduction was insignificant. The 600 additional “No” votes in the second referendum indicates significant agreement. It will be interesting to see the results after the third referendum, assuming a successful petition!

Mr Rosenthal correctly recognizes that the No voters now demand to be taken seriously. Without any organized effort, the No votes still outnumbered the Yes votes, despite well-organized efforts through the schools to support the increase. Chairman Rodgers apparently also hears this drumbeat.

One council member suggested only the tiniest reduction to give voters one more chance to support the plan at the town meeting. She argues that voters have opportunities to delete, by line item, anything they want at the meeting. Evidently, she counts on the track record of past town meetings, where only a small (insignificant?) percentage of voters are able to attend — those who seem less concerned with rising taxes. A town meeting is the wrong format for a vote at any stage of the budget process for a town of our size.

Another neighbor made a point that is reflected in the words I have chosen for this letter. He asks for clarity during the annual budget process by using language that reflects the facts. Any spending request that is higher than the current, adopted, budget is an increase. Each year spending plans are requested by the Board of Education and the town. These initial requests are reduced before they are even put to a vote. From that point forward, we only hear about “cuts in the budget.” This is misleading. While many voters pay close enough attention to see through this rhetoric, perhaps far more voters hear only the buzz words, and cast their Yes votes in fear of “cuts.” This speaker said he spoke with a voter who did not understand that she was voting for a tax increase.

Town leaders speculate that rising fuel prices, and a sense of helplessness when it comes to state and federal taxes, are driving the budget opposition. I believe it’s much simpler than that. The voters expect you to do what they and businesses do to meet the challenges of rising costs. Find new sources of revenue, and until you do, prioritize and make do with what you’ve got. Money doesn’t grow on taxpayers’ trees!

Tunde Cseh

Pine Tree Hill Road, Newtown                                     May 22, 2006