With No Changes––

Council Sends

Budget To Voters

By Dottie Evans

There was one brief cliffhanging moment Wednesday night, as the Legislative Council deliberated on whether or not to make further cuts to the proposed 2003–2004 town and education budget before sending it on the voters April 22.

The moment of decision came during the roll call vote on a motion made by member Brian White to cut an additional $500,000 from the $80.7 million package. The proposed spending plan had already sustained a $1,050,000 reduction March 12 at the hands of the Board of Finance.

As recording secretary Jan Andreas tallied the votes, the results could not have been closer.

Six members voted in favor of the motion: Peggy Baiad, Joseph DiCandido, Tim Holian, Will Rodgers, Legislative Council Chairman Don Studley, and Brian White.

And six members voted against the motion: Joe Borst, Amy Dent, Mike Iassogna, Joe Hemingway, Bill Meyer, and Fran Pennarola.

Since it was a tie, the motion to cut an additional $500,000 was defeated.

A subsequent motion by Amy Dent to pass the budget along to the voters without any further cuts passed by a vote of 7 to 5, with Mrs Dent, Mr DiCandido, Mr Iassogna, Mr Hemingway, Mr Holian, Mr Meyer, and Mr Pennarola voting in favor of the motion. Voting against the motion were Mrs Baiad, Mr Borst, Mr Rodgers, Mr Studley, and Mr White.

Following the decision by the council not to tamper further with the budget at this point and leave it to Newtown voters, most of the more than 50 people in the audience who had come to speak their minds and hear the arguments were elated.

“Now you’ve got to go out and sell this to the voters. Get them out to the polls,” said Gene Vetrano of 6 Camelot Crest Road as school supporters stood and congratulated each other.

Coincidentally, it was Mr Vetrano who had made a similar call to action at the beginning, during the period for public participation, only it had been delivered to the Legislative Council as they were about to begin their deliberations.

“I urge you to support this budget. Your charge is to represent the people of this town. Your job is not to cut the budget. Send it to a vote,” Mr Vetrano said.

His plea was echoed by every single one of the 11 other speakers who followed him.

Newtown High School Principal Bill Manfredonia asked the council to support the finance board’s decision, recognizing that “they were under a lot of pressure.”

“I do not think that the intent of the finance board was to have the budget cut further.”

He also warned that parents would already see the results of current cuts in reduced course choices at the high school. He also urged the council not to make further cuts that would affect clubs and sports, “because our town is so spread out geographically. These are what bring us together.”

David Smith of New Lebbon Road asked the council to “pass the budget as presented” and to make a greater publicity effort to ensure a higher voter turnout.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal stated that he was working with the registrars and the town clerk to publicize the referendum.

“We will have sandwich boards to place around town to remind people.”

Newtown Schools Director of Business Ron Bienkowski called the budget “detailed and complicated” and asked the council members not to generalize about numbers that he and others had worked eight months to put together.

“Please don’t try to distill a budget into global conclusions,” Mr Bienkowski said.

School Board Chairman Elaine McClure said, “We think the $400,000 [already cut from the education side of the budget] is going to be hard enough.”

Board of Finance member Jim Gaston said, “We made a financial decision about means versus needs,” and he asked the council to reexamine what tax credits might be offered to senior citizens unable to pay their tax bills because of revaluation increases.

Several council members spoke about the need to make hard decisions, but their interpretation of a “hard decision” varied. Fran Pennarola said, “The budget belongs to the people, it doesn’t belong to us.” Peggy Baiad saw a “hard decision” as having the will to make a “further decrease in the budget in front of a room full of proponents.”

Will Rodgers said, “We shouldn’t pass the budget along by default. We were picked to bring a greater level of focus on to this decision. We ought to avoid easy answers. Use your guts. Don’t abdicate responsibility.”

Council member Amy Dent pointed out that, historically, it had been the legislative council’s job to apply a certain level of scrutiny to the budget –– a role now being played by the Board of Finance.

“I’m not happy with the fact that the change in our property values is going to ultimately make this a more homogeneous town. It’s out of our control,” she said.

“What is in our control is what happens if we make further cuts.”

Her implication was, if further cuts were made to the proposed budget, Newtown’s hard-won educational excellence would suffer. As it turned out, six other council members felt the same way.