The Budget Vote

The Legislative Council spent a lonely half-hour three weeks ago listening to public comment (mostly from Ruby Johnson) on this year’s $96 million-plus budget proposal. The meager response from the community to this year’s version of Newtown’s annual joust between town and school budgeters suggested ennui, resignation, or even apathy about how the town spends its money. Appearances can be deceptive, however. Feelings run deep in this community about the need to support and maintain excellent schools and about the need to keep a lid on property taxes.

Consequently, predicting whether the budget will pass or fail in the referendum on April 25 is still guesswork at this point. One thing is certain, however. If the budget hearing’s sparse turnout translates into a sparse turnout at the polls, the chances are very good that Newtown will end up with a budget that fails to reflect its priorities as a town.

Here is how the Legislative Council has sliced up those priorities in the proposed budget pie: The biggest piece by far (63.4 percent) goes to the schools. (About half of the entire pie goes for school salaries and benefits.) Payments on the town debt account for about 1/12th of the whole; the Highway Department, 1/17th; the Police Department, 1/26th; Parks and Recreation, 1/56th; the fire companies, 1/100th; the Booth Library, 1/110th; the Newtown Health District, 1/437th; and social services, 1/1,202th.

The budget calls for spending nearly $10 a day for every man, woman, and child in Newtown. Here’s where the money is going to come from: property taxes, 83.4 percent; state funds, 8.3 percent; local fees and revenues, 5.9 percent; and surplus funds from last year’s budget, 2.4 percent. (For a complete breakdown of expenditures and revenues in the proposed budget, turn to page C-Ten)

We wish Newtown could spend more money on our priorities and collect less money from long-suffering property taxpayers. We understand, in this instance, that our wishes and our reality will never intersect. This budget, however, reflects the point at which those two contradictory wishes come closest together. It is the point at which Newtown can best reconcile its various wishes with the promise of a better future, and this point has a time and place: April 25 from 6 am to 8 pm at the Newtown Middle School. Be there.