$101 Million On The Line

It is a long way from deliberation to consensus, but Newtown officials took the first step in that journey last week when the Boards of Education, Finance, and Selectmen met to discuss capital priorities, especially the $47 million proposal to expand Newtown High School. The November 9 meeting also drew several interested members of the Legislative Council since the high school expansion, along with several other capital projects planned around town, will land on the council’s agenda as the town heads into the budget making season.

The proposed high school expansion project is the largest, but by no means the only, item on the town’s list of planned capital projects. Various town departments and agencies have amassed $101 million in capital funding requests for consideration by the selectmen, the Board of Finance, and the Legislative Council. These include road improvements, the development of a tech park off Commerce Road, a new senior center, a recreation center, open space acquisition, and various other capital expenses like firefighting and road maintenance equipment. Nearly every expense on this long list, in and of itself, seems worthy of taxpayer support. But when taken together, the cumulative effect of these expenses on the tax rate may cause taxpayer support to buckle and threaten the town’s self-imposed ten percent debt limit. The need to set priorities is paramount now, but at least the process of reaching a consensus has begun.

Supporters of the high school expansion proposal have a strong case. When balanced against the need for artificial turf for a playing field at Dickinson Park or design improvements to the streetscape of Sandy Hook, of course addressing overcrowding at the high school comes first. But advocating, as one school board member did last week, that the high school expansion plan go “as is” to a town vote, preempts a much-needed review and possible revision of this project in the context of  all other capital projects by the Legislative Council.

Those who cry, “Let the people decide,” as they call for speedy and discrete town votes on issues of special importance to them need to remember that the people did decide on establishing in the charter the current process for assessing and setting the town’s financial priorities. They also need to remember that the members of the Legislative Council, unlike their counterparts on the Boards of Education, Finance, and Selectmen, stood for election in competitive races last year and have a political legitimacy that others who automatically took office in uncontested races do not have. After hearing council candidates describe their positions and express their priorities for Newtown in an election campaign last year, the people decided to empower our current council members with the responsibilities accorded them in the charter. It seems insensitive to that democratic process now to ask the Legislative Council not to do its job but to defer to the judgments of a Board of Education “elected” by default.

Deliberation leads to consensus, and consensus has the power and force of the confluence of many ideas. A snap referendum, as democratic as it may seem, is not deliberation; it is a simple reaction — yes or no — to a single idea posed as a question. With $101 million on the line, we think deliberation is the way to go.