Minority Tyranny

To the Editor:

Last week I attended our town council meeting regarding our third budget defeat and to set a new vote date and budget amount. I was also there to say, like the majority who voted No — my vote meant No new increase in spending. That…No, according to Webster’s Dictionary, meant…Not in agreement; it was not a code word for Yes.

Of the approximately 65 attendees who were not town officials, eight who spoke said their No voted meant…No. And about 38 who spoke from the teacher union-PTA lobby said, that when they voted No, the really meant Yes. A good tactic to create chaos and marginalize the majority vote of some 2,226 voters who voted No. But, the other side of that coin is — I wonder how many who voted Yes could have meant No. Thus speculating and making subjective judgments of what people meant results in marginalizing the majority vote. Our Founding Fathers called this “minority tyranny.”

The bottom line result is that after midnight the town council decided to add $200,000 to the school side of the budget for the next vote to get it passed. This lack of courage and common sense by those elected resulted in marginalizing the majority vote. They listened to 38 complainers instead of 2,226 voters. This allowed those 38 to hijack the democratic process to serve their own ends rather than the public. Thus hijack a majority vote by law…was supposed to matter.

To those who voted No on this budget, I want to ask where were you last Wednesday, June 6, 2012?

The eight of us who spoke in defense of the majority can’t do it alone. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Freedom is fragile and if you fail to stay involved you will soon lose your rights and freedom. If you think I’m kidding, be aware there is movement afoot to do away with budget votes and let town boards of finance and town councils decide budget amounts.

Note: We do not lack a town budget; “legally” last year’s budget is our town budget until a new budget is approved by a majority vote. And there is nothing in either the US Constitution or our state charter that guarantees public employees an annual pay raise, especially when taxpayers’ real income has been declining for the last five years.

Note: Our schools have plenty of money; they get more than $1.4 million weekly. Our school budget has increased about 11.5 percent over the last four years versus only 1.5 percent increase for the town.

This is not about education as these 38 teacher-PTA lobbyists claim. After all, everyone knows the millions and millions of dollars that have been spent on our schools. We have simply reached a point where we cannot afford business as usual. This is about not going over the financial cliff in our state ($10 billion total deficit), and nationally ($16 trillion deficit). Higher taxes will not grow our economy and create jobs in our town, state, or nationally. But higher taxes will add the straw that destroys jobs in the private sector and our economy.

Remember, a few can’t do it alone. Don’t allow your vote to be marginalized by minority tyranny; stay involved. This is what the taxpayers in Wisconsin finally figured out.

Daniel Kormanik

178 Hanover Road, Newtown     June 11, 2012