Allocate Tax Dollars Equitably

To the Editor:

Newtown voters have voted down twice the proposed budgets and following the second vote, our enlightened officials have decided to raise the proposed budget. That is incomprehensible!

I would like to suggest that the school budget be presented to the town using activity-based costing. Here is an example of information that should be valuable in allocating our tax dollars to school activities.

Split the total sports budget between required activities (physical education) and elective sports.

For each elective sport (football, ice hockey, cross-country, golf, etc), list the activities consuming cash, such as field maintenance, coaching staff, referees fees, travel, etc, and calculate for each sport the amount of cash budgeted.

For each elective sport, tabulate the participating students and calculate the dollars expanded per student (example: football $250 per participating student, ice hockey $350, golf $450).

I suspect that we would find great differences in the dollar amount expanded by student for the various elective sports. Because we need to give everyone the same opportunity, the school could then distribute vouchers of equal value to all students (say $200) and have the student decide how badly they want to practice a sport. The town taxpayers do not owe the students a country club membership.

Overall, the taxpayers of this town have some rough sailing ahead. The Newtown officials need to do a better job in laying out an actionable budget.

Sincerely,

Dominique J. Nocturne

36 Key Rock Road, Newtown                                           May 31, 2010