To the Editor:

When I was a child, and something went wrong, we would all point fingers at each other: it wasn’t my fault, they did it!

It’s easy to look for someone to blame when something goes wrong. But blaming doesn’t help us solve complex problems. We need to do the hard work of studying, analyzing, and compromising to find solutions.

Newtown has a big budget problem this year. Residents here don’t need cuts that are made arbitrarily and single handedly. We need honesty and transparency. And we need thoughtful informed decisions about what expenses are necessary, and where we could find real savings.

Maybe the problem is because the health insurance program wasn’t well enough endowed. Maybe it’s because the cost of electricity went up so much. Maybe it’s because the water and sewer authority was underfunded. Maybe it’s because the people of Newtown have had low tax increases for many years, and it’s all catching up to us now. Maybe all that helps explain why we’re in the situation we’re in today. But trying to blame someone, and trying to frame it as partisan politics, not only doesn’t help, it keeps us from understanding what to do to move forward.

Finger pointing is easy. A child can do that. Transparency and informed decisions take a lot more work, but they’re the only way to ensure we have all the information we need so we can vote on the budget. Please don’t give us propaganda; give us the facts!

Ed Randall

Newtown