Newtowners are driving bigger cars and building bigger houses. Now it is clear there is a demand for a bigger municipal budget to support excellence in public education and an infrastructure of public facilities capable of serving an increasingly prosperous town. In recent weeks, the Legislative Council has been struggling with the question of whether to loosen its strict spending policies in light of pressure from parents’ groups and others to spend more on schools and ball fields. After making a point of holding the line last week, cutting $1 million from the proposed school budget and another $350,000 from the Parks and Recreation Department, it quickly relented, restoring almost all of what it had cut by the end of the week.

Throughout the budget process this year, we have repeatedly heard residents pleading with local budgetmakers to  “let the people decide” how much they want to afford for education and athletic facilities.  Obviously, people are looking at their own budgets and finding enough extra money there to pay the bigger tax bills that will surely come if they get what they want. These voices are growing in their fervor, and they seem to be having an impact on the Legislative Council, given its quick reversal on last week’s budget cuts.

Town government is, in the end, a democratic institution wherein the majority rules. The pressure for more spending in town – for a new 5/6 school and needed capital improvements in existing schools, for ball fields, and for the purchase of Fairfield Hills – has not, so far, been offset by a countervailing call for fiscal restraint from citizens’ groups. The one-sided nature of the debate prompted one council member, Melissa Pilchard, to invoke the evanescent “silent majority” as a proxy for those so obviously absent from the discussion. Because this segment of the community has been so silent this year, however, we are unconvinced of its majority status. If the council had abandoned all its efforts to resist the tide of proposed new spending this year and “let the people decide” how high the tax rate will float, the budget would probably still pass on the first vote. Notwithstanding our skepticism about the existence of a “silent majority” in Newtown, however, we are certain that the rising tax rate will overwhelm the ability of some homeowners to pay, given what we know about the current level of demand for social services and assistance from the FAITH Food Pantry.

While the majority rules in a democracy, our democratic institutions have distinguished themselves in this country by recognizing that the majority has a special responsibility not to trample on the welfare of the minority. This principle came into high relief last year when we witnessed the horrors of  “ethnic cleansing” in eastern Europe. It is hard for us to conceive of something like that happening in the United States. We are thankful that we do not live in a place where a majority can force people from their homes on pain of death. But what of the more subtle and benign effects of “economic cleansing,” where the threat for those being forced to move is insolvency and not death? We realize this is a radical comparison, but it is worth bearing in mind as we go about building new economic realities in Newtown. All our choices have effects on people other than ourselves.

We are convinced of the need for a new school and for allocating the resources needed to sustain excellence in public education locally. A good education remains the surest path to overcoming economic barriers. In our pursuit of these and other worthy goals, however, we should make every effort to take into account the interests, economic and otherwise, of all Newtown’s citizens so that we may all move forward together.