Common Cents
for 4-29-09
THE PROPOSED TOWN AND EDUCATIONAL BUDGETS
I am afraid that residents may approve a budget with no tax increase, but there is still an awful lot of fat that could be trimmed from both the town and educational budgets.
We are in a deep and fragile recession, many families are struggling financially and no one can predict how long this situation will last. Given that, it is certainly reasonable to ask both the town and the school system to freeze spending at last years levels. I am told that is not the case right now but I have not yet been able to obtain the detailed budget sheets in order to compare last years budgeted spending to this years proposed spending. Check out the next Common Cents ~ the real numbers will be there.
The town is fortunate to be the beneficiary of the huge amount of interest money from the funds we have in reserve. Don’t be taken in by the, “We have proposed a budget that is a net reduction” since the devil is in the details of that statement. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth interest income is credited to the town’s coffers from our millions of dollars of reserve money. That interest revenue the town receives more than offsets the spending increase and makes it appear the Board of Selectmen is being fiscally responsible. WRONG! Freezing spending at last years levels would be fiscally responsible,
The educational budget has increased each and every year as far back as anyone can remember. Therefore it should be no surprise that a proposed increase is on the table. The usual ploy used by the Board of Education [in lockstep with the Superintendant of schools] is that, “We have a contractual obligation to pay salary increases [of course we approved them previously] so our budget must be bigger than last years. WRONG! There is absolutely no reason why they can’t reduce other spending by [1] cutting out some of the esoteric classes in the curriculum that have little to do with preparing our children for dealing with the real world. Eliminating a few of these fine arts type courses would have the related effect of not needing teachers and paraprofessionals in those classrooms and will also free up those classrooms so that expensive building additions would not be required. [2] Cutting an administrator or two ~ these are the people [such as an assistant principal] who receive a handsome $100K+ salary and benefits package. The school population is on the decline, so why do we need to keep the same bloated administrative staff? Finally, the schools are planning on receiving $500K worth of economic stimulus money for each of the next two years, but what happens if that money does not materialize?
Check the next Common Cents on March 13th for the real numbers that I believe will show increases in spending on both sides of the ledger.
THE MUSEUM PROPERTY SWEETHEART LEASE
Last week we were given a classic dog-and-pony show at the Public Hearing and Town Meeting on the sweetheart lease our 1st Selectman railroaded through for the benefit of a special interest group. Rather than dwell on the improper sign posting of the meeting and the numerous redirections of the truth we heard from the podium that night, consider what was done:
No one was asked for a photo ID upon entering the meeting room prior to the town meeting and the related voting to approve the Museum District lease. So how did the checkers at the door know you were who you said you were? They didn’t. I made a call to the Elections Enforcement people in Hartford, explained the situation to them and am waiting for an attorney to call me back on this matter. I believe that not requiring a photo ID invalidated the meeting and all business that was conducted at it. I will publish the Elections Enforcement attorney’s response to me in the next Common Cents.
In a nut shell, at the town meting about 55 residents committed the town to purchase and install a bridge over Ball Pond Brook although, when pressed for a dollar estimate for that bridge, John Hodge said he did not know “but we’re working on it”. WOW! Worse than that, there was no cap put on the cost of the bridge and that is the equivalent of a blank check. Isn’t that lovely? If the bridge were to cost a million dollars, we taxpayers would have no choice but to pay for it.
Also, we do not know if it will be a footbridge or a bridge that would allow for vehicular traffic. If the bridge does not allow for vehicular travel for things such as EMT vans/ambulances, I feel the town is open to a huge liability if a visitor has “the big one” in one of the buildings and winds up dying on the way to the hospital. The claim could well be made that having to hand carry supplies across a footbridge and then having to gurney the person back to the ambulance resulted in a fatal time delay.
That bridge could easily cost in excess of $100K, will need the appropriate permits this time so it does not have to be taken down like the last one and may cost a lot more than that. Now the town is legally bound to build it, provide paved areas for parking, etc on both ends of it and you and I will have to pay for it. Isn’t that just ducky?
Perhaps the most devious comment of the evening was made by both John Hodge and Ron Oliveri. They both stated, “It doesn’t matter if the lease is approved or not, the bridge will have to be built either way.” HUH? If the project were simply abandoned by the town why would a bridge need to be built by the town? It wouldn’t. I have no problem with leasing the Museum District to the PNF group as long as they pay for the maintenance, expenses and insurances, but why were we residents committed to spending a lot of money to build a bridge for them? PNF has proudly stated they were well off financially, so let them pay for the bridge to their leased property. What’s wrong with that?
A couple of residents asked, “Why on earth would any organization want to lease a piece of property that it can not access and no one can tell them when it will be able to access the site?” Good question.
Finally, some other residents asked why the vote could not be a machine vote since we will be at the voting booth in less than 3 weeks to vote on the budget and the proposed lease could have been included in the budget referendum. The answer is that it would have been voted down when the 8,800+ residents went to the polls. Those of us who attended last Thursdays meetings witnessed a classic John Hodge “gotcha”.
QUOTABLE QUOTES
“Peace is that quiet moment when everyone is reloading!!!” – Anonymous
“Courage... is the universal virtue of all those who choose to do the right thing over the expedient thing. It is the common currency of all those who do what they are supposed to do in a time of conflict, crisis and confusion.” — Florence Nightengale
Doug Thielen
