Now’s your chance

Friday, January 22, 2010

Hearings on the town and school proposed budgets loom. They are your chances to have some impact on how your tax money is spent.

OK, we all know that the impact is somewhat limited because most of the money in our budgets is earmarked for things about which we can do little, like insurance or heat.

But there are still some things you can do and even if you don’t believe that, it behooves you to go to the hearings anyway, if for no other reason than to speak your piece.

The town’s public hearing on its $22.4 million budget is next Wednesday, 7 p.m. It shows a minimal increase of 1.53 percent in spending, which includes a $75,000 hike for health insurance, no surprise there. If it’s approved as it is, property taxes will go up 2 percent because of declines in revenue, again no surprise. It’s not a big hit, but if you don’t like it, or if you have specific issues with the spending package, go to the hearing and tell your councilors. You’ve nothing to lose but time.

The school budget will be discussed at the annual Deliberative Session on Feb. 2 in the high school theater. Now here is where parents – and we hope some students – will speak out. The budget reflects reductions of more than $1 million. Cuts include two library assistant positions, one high school teacher, two speech assistants, a paraprofessional, an in-school suspension position, the elementary lunch/recess paraprofessionals, and one custodian.

One can always argue that if you can cut ’em, you probably didn’t need ’em, but that, especially in these times, can be specious reasoning. These positions have been in the budget before, they remained in the budget in the past, and they are being cut because: A. Times are tough, and we don’t want to raise taxes, or; B. We don’t want to raise taxes because times are tough.

OK, that’s fair, but the problem is this: If, two years from now, prosperity has kicked down our doors and all is well with our economic world, will any of these positions be restored? Possibly, but not outright. No public official is going to announce that, “Given the new prosperity, all those things that we cut two years ago will be restored because we really need them, otherwise they wouldn’t have been in the budget in the first place.” You see, that’s really the key: need. We are, generally, of the opinion that public officials, who pay the same taxes as the rest of us for the same things, are not wont to increase their tax bills even if they think it’s a hoot to increase yours, which they really don’t. No kidding. Most local public officials are fiscally responsible and approach additional spending as they would a cobra having a bad day.

What is bothersome, though, is their ability to cut things during budget discussions, things that, because they were in the budget to being with, we should be able to assume are necessary. Right? Shouldn’t that be the case? If, for instance, an elementary lunch/recess paraprofessional is not necessary for the well-being and/or the education of our children, why is that position in the budget, especially if our officials can apparently cut it with impunity? Isn’t that a bit of a mystery?

So, if for no other reason, that’s an impetus to go to the public hearings: To ask our officials how they are able to cut things that they must have deemed necessary else why would they have put them into the budgets in the first place?

Go on. Do it.