It is a rite of spring. Along with the mating calls of birds and the rising chorus of peepers in the swamps comes the annual refrain of Newtown’s budgetmakers: “This is a difficult year.”

The tune this year is similar to last year’s only a little more urgent – we have to be poised financially to seize the opportunities available at Fairfield Hills, and we have to do something about school overcrowding. Financing for both the proposed 5/6 school and the purchase of Fairfield Hills are included in the budget that will be presented to the voters next Tuesday, April 24, and so far the community has seemed inclined to support both initiatives. But this year, the extra strains these two projects have put on the budget have caused the town’s resolve to support other important areas to buckle. The Legislative Council cut $800,000 from the Board of Education’s spending package, which forced the school board to abandon plans to add teachers in Middle Gate, Sandy Hook, and the middle school in an effort to stem the growth of class sizes in those schools. Wounded by this cut, school supporters have been cowed into supporting the proposed budget, fearing further cuts.

In the end, the Legislative Council did what it had to do to put together a budget that will give the town the financial footing to clear the 5/6 school and Fairfield Hills hurdles if it chooses to, without increasing the tax rate to a point where householders formulating their own budgets would rebel. The proposed budget has at least the grudging support of all sides at this point, and we hope and expect that it will pass at next week’s referendum.

There is no glory in budgetmaking in Newtown these days. Nobody is getting everything they want. Since it oversees the fractious process of assembling a budget each year, the Legislative Council becomes the focus of disappointment and frustration. The job is difficult, and in the end there always seems to be a surplus of criticism and a deficit of thanks. So as a last word here, we offer to the men and women of the council some of that rare commodity for their sincere and steadfast efforts in yet another difficult year – our thanks.