How We Vote On Budgets

To the Editor:

I served on the Charter Revision Commission, which was charged with developing a recommendation on bifurcating our budget and voted to recommend that we change our charter as accepted by the Legislative Council. The revision enables the voter to accept the budget, vote it down for being too high or vote it down for being too low. The “Yes” votes must exceed the total of both “No” votes for the budget to pass.

I did not think that bifurcating or splitting our budget into two separate votes was the best option. When you split the budget, it is possible that one side will pass and the other side will fail. At that point, there are only two options to consider. The first, is to ignore a voter’s decision that the side that was passed was acceptable and change it. I do not think that any voter would be pleased that their vote was ignored and the part of the budget that passed could be changed. While other towns do this, I do not think it is the right thing to do. A voter’s vote should be binding and final.

The second option is to accept the side that was passed as final, honoring the voter’s vote. The side that failed must then change. That will either lead to a cut in services or a rise in taxes. The Legislative Council would not have the ability to work with the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Education in order to collaborate on a solution. This is not a good solution either.

I believe that the revision will let the voters have their say in the budget while allowing for collaboration between our elected officials. The special election to decide this is on March 29. If you want to change on how we vote on our budget, come out and vote.

Eric Paradis

85 Riverside Road, Sandy Hook                             February 23, 2011