More Yeses Are Turning To No

To the Editor:

Just as the Legislative Council perceived a lack of trust between the public and the school administration largely to blame for the first failed referendum, it seems that it was a lack of confidence and trust in town government — perhaps most specifically the Legislative Council — that led to failure of the third attempt .

There has been much learned by the electorate this past six weeks about our budget as a whole, and people are not happy about what they are discovering. While many questions about the education budget have been answered — such as enrollment decline or rather the lack of significant decline — new questions about our municipal budget and the allocation of tax dollars dedicated to our unassigned fund balance (aka Rainy Day Account) have come up. These questions, together with the public’s perception that the Legislative Council has had a lack of understanding and/or awareness in these areas — specifically the Rainy Day Fund and the recent refinancing, have diminished the Legislative Council’s credibility. Voters are asking: If they didn’t understand that, how could they understand something as complex as the education budget?

The initial $1 million cut to education alienated education supporters — a group whose numbers are growing. The Legislative Council’s refusal to consider reducing the $900,000 being added to the unassigned fund balance while education was defunded almost twice that amount, strengthened and motivated this group. The recent move giving the Board of Education access to $200,000 that has been sitting idle for four years in yet another account is creating more doubt in the general public’s mind about our local government’s transparency, priorities, and vision for our town. Yes, the money was in plain view in the budget documentation, but why did it take three failed referenda to make it widely known to the public? Why are we prioritizing idle dollars over educating the children?

The irony here is that most, if not all, education supporters supported the initial entire budget. They support the Highway Department, the Rainy Day Fund, etc, just not at the expense of educating their children. They seek balance. Many who spoke at last week’s meeting, requesting restoration of funds to education, stated that they voted Yes to the first budget.

If that’s so, why did the vote fail by 600 votes? We don’t know. Could it have been timing? That the referendum and Republican Presidential Primary were the same day? We don’t know. Was it that voters wanted a reduction to both sides of the budget? We don’t know. Was it scheduled too close to school vacation? We don’t know. But it seems obvious after two subsequent failures that it was not the reason originally thought by the Legislative Council.

We are already hearing that more Yeses turned to No as a result of Wednesday’s LC meeting. Perhaps there will be some positive news for education supporters this week, we have no indication that balance has been achieved and evidence to the contrary continues to mount.

Michele Assante

Wendover Road, Newtown           June 13, 2012