Vote On Charter Question

To the Editor:

Next Tuesday voters in Newtown will have the opportunity to change the charter to authorize separate votes on the Board of Selectman’s budget and the Board of Education budget. Almost everyone I have talked to on this subject wants to have the right to express their preferences on the two budgets separately, and they support the change.

Despite that, two letters in last week’s Bee opposed the charter question authorizing separate votes on the Board of Selectman’s budget and the Board of Education budget because it provides that if one budget passes and the other fails, the passed budget is adopted with future votes only on the budget which failed.

I have a rhetorical question: If both halves of the budget have to pass for there to be a budget, then what is the good of having separate votes?

Where a voter votes in favor of a budget, it means that the voter wants that budget to pass. That voter should have the right for his or her vote to count. Unless you give meaning to the vote, there is no purpose in voting on the budgets separately.

Please remember to vote on the charter question, and please vote to support the change.

Very truly yours,

Robert H. Hall

Member of the Charter Revision Commission

5 Nettleton Avenue, Newtown                                   October 30, 2012