To the Editor:

As awareness grows about Newtown Charter Revision questions on the November 8 ballot, what I hear most is “Wait. Why would we ever want to eliminate the Board of Finance?”

Implied in the question is concern about the financial strength of our town and our local tax burden. Recently this paper held a Facebook forum so advocates of eliminating the Board could rationalize this shortsighted step.

Despite all the convoluted history lessons on Newtown government and the repeated assertions that “this had wide support on the Charter Review Commission” presented in the forum, the simplest reasons for voting NO on Question 2 remain the best reasons:

(1) more public representation in a government process is ALWAYS a good thing and

(2) there is no proposed alternative to the Board. Newtown voters are supposed to trust the Legislative Council (LC) to come up with an alternative that works better and that most of us can support. What could go wrong? It’s a bad idea.

A major, practical reason why we need a Board of Finance is that the LC struggles with the amount of work it has to do and does not have the time or capacity to deal with medium- and long-term financial issues beyond this year’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) and the General Funds Budget.

Once LC passes the CIP and the budget, they move on to other very important Town issues such as ordinances, town development, and government operation. The Board works on town finances year-round.

The Charter Review Commission (CRC) Chair says elimination of the Board is driven by a quest for efficiency. True, eliminating the Board does superficially appear to simplify town government, but at what cost? Rather than making our town government more efficient, eliminating the Board will simply slow it down even more.

True, sometimes items are changed in the back and forth and must be reconsidered, and that means multiple reviews, but that’s the way democracy works. It can be aggravating, but it’s not a flaw to be eliminated for efficiency’s sake. Efficiency is not effectiveness The CRC should have tried to adjust the division of financial responsibility in town, not simply sweep a useful Board away without an alternative.

By law our town Charter must be reviewed every five years. Let’s not risk remorse and collateral damage by eliminating the Board, creating damage that we’ll just have to undo next time.

Keep the Board of Finance. Vote NO on Referendum question 2.

Peter Schwarz

Newtown