Performance, Not Platitudes

To the Editor:

Curtiss Clark suggested in a recent Bee editorial that our political candidates spend too much time “dwelling on generalities” and not enough getting “into the details that might trip them up.” It is easy to see why Mr Clark, after spending so many years listening to Democratic and Republican chatter in this town (and I am a registered Republican), has reached that conclusion. But this year’s political campaign will be very different from any before it. The Independent Party of Newtown and its slate of candidates are offering the voters more than platitudes. For the first time in years, the voters have a true choice. And just to show Mr Clark that all political parties and their candidates are not alike, here are some of the specific proposals the Independent Party of Newtown has to offer:

1. Fairfield Hills Authority will be disbanded. It was created through legislative sleight-of-hand by Herb Rosenthal and Will Rodgers and has effectively removed the taxpayers from real input into the development of Fairfield Hills.

2. All town departments will be subject to zero-based budgeting and will have to justify every dollar of their budget requests. It is time to start removing the “fluff” in budgets that occurs when the municipal authorities in charge of reviewing such requests worry more about settling on an artificial overall budget number than critically assessing the town’s needs and scrutinizing each request.

3. The Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) will be reworked and implemented so that we can make the necessary upgrades to our schools. Each year, the CIP has been nothing more than a “wish list” created to placate voters. Ultimately, though, many of the proposals in the CIP are abandoned and moved into later years because the debt service for Fairfield Hills, the “Band-Aid” approach to fixing our schools and the current administration’s habit of parceling out funds in an attempt to please everyone, has resulted only in higher costs and ultimately less money to allocate toward truly necessary projects.

4. All voters will have access to more information about how the budget is created. All information regarding the budget (line item detail of how much each department requests; what the Legislative Council has recommended and, if there are cuts to a specific budget, what services or acquisitions will be affected) should be printed in a special edition of The Newtown Bee so that voters have a clear understanding of how the Legislative Council intends to allocate their tax dollars.

The voters of Newtown deserve more than the empty promises and politically expedient proposals they have been subjected to over the last ten years. Real and lasting change in our town will not occur until a new group of leaders is given the opportunity to tackle and resolve the critical issues we face today. The Independent Party of Newtown is home to such leaders. When elected, we will work with the voters, not in spite of them, to address those issues.

Robert Murray

Independent Party of Newtown

Candidate for Legislative Council-District 3

18 Farm Meadow Road                                 September 20, 2007