To the Editor:

On Thursday, September 28, Governor Malloy made good on his promise to veto the bipartisan budget which would have restored $4,893,944 of Newtown's Education Cost Sharing funding. Shortly after, his Executive Order went into effect unilaterally implementing his draconian budget, which has always been considered the worst-case scenario for Newtown as it not only zeros out millions in funding, but would also send us a bill for the state's unfunded obligations.

It is the governor's idea that towns like Newtown, which have been prudent in their spending, and our property taxpayers should be supplementing the state and others who have not. The Republican leadership in this town has worked hard for the last eight-plus years to strengthen our financial standing, resulting in Newtown being one of only a handful of Standard & Poor's AAA-rated towns in Connecticut. Because of that, the governor wants to push the state's problems onto us and take away from our children and grandchildren.

Without the October payment from the state, Newtown will not receive about one-third of the millions that we counted on last year.

Some people use planning as a buzzword; we actually do it. Today as other districts are scrambling and even issuing layoff notices, Newtown can weather missing this first payment thanks to the foresight of the current Republican-led Legislative Council. It was not unanimous, but we proactively planned for a possible reduction in state aid of up to $3 million. As we chose not to put our heads in the sand as to the fiscal realities of our state, residents of Newtown should not feel the full impact of the governor's decision to take away millions from our town and schools.

Newtown and all of Connecticut still need a budget. Please join me in letting all of our state representatives and senators know that what the governor is doing is not right. They must oppose it, create a budget, and restore our school funding. Pushing the state's problems onto Newtown property taxpayers will only increase taxes and reduce services.

While I am a member of the Legislative Council, my comments are made as an individual.

Thank you,

Dan Wiedemann

Legislative Council District 2

13 Clearview Drive, Sandy Hook         October 4, 2017