Connecticut ping!
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
Posted on 06/04/2006 9:26:23 AM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
Direct democracy can be a headache for town officials who have to cut and re-cut before voters bless a municipal budget.
Budget referendums are uncommon in most of the United States and aren't universal in Connecticut, taking place mostly in smaller towns.
Last month, Bethel, Brookfield and Newtown each had two failed referendums, when voters decided the budgets just spent too much money.
Some officials feel their towns are victims of a cycle of frustration stemming from rising prices everywhere else.
"The negative side is that we are probably the only thing people can vote on and have an impact," said John Goetz, superintendent of Brookfield schools. "You can't vote on your telephone bill. You can't vote on gas prices."
Brookfield residents will vote at a third referendum June 13 on a budget that significantly reduces spending from the first ballot.
School funding makes up most of municipal budgets and is usually most effected by any budget changes. In Bethel, which will have its third referendum Tuesday, two interest groups emerged to battle over increasing or decreasing the budget for schools.
"It's democracy in action," said Stuart Carlson, the chairman of the Bethel Board of Education. He said he hopes voters approve the budget next time, but has no qualms with the process.
"That's why we're calling on all voters to vote," he said. "It's the purest form of democracy."
Participatory democracy is a staple in New England, but in the late 1980s and early 1990s Connecticut towns started moving away from town hall meetings – and moving toward referenda.
Town meetings were often held at night for two hours or more, which sometimes discouraged people from attending.
"At town meetings there wasn't always a place to hold all the people," said Newtown First Selectman Herb Rosenthal.
"The rooms were usually packed with special interest groups," Rosenthal said. Voting was by voice or raised hands, instead of paper ballots or voting machines.
"Now people can vote with anonymity and don't have to sit in a room and worry about their neighbor yelling at them for their opinion," Rosenthal said.
It costs about $5,000 to $7,000 to hold each referendum, driving town costs up every time a budget is rejected.
But some taxpayer advocates think government officials aren't serious enough when they send the first version of the budget to voters.
"It's a government budget wish list," said John Berger, of Brookfield, the treasurer of the advocacy group Concerned Citizens of Brookfield. "They know it's going down so they fill it to the max, fully knowing cuts will be made along the way."
Brookfield reduced its spending by about $600,000 and lowered the proposed tax hike from 5.2 percent to 2.8 percent after the budget was twice rejected.
Bethel reduced its proposed tax hike from 5.4 percent to 4.6 percent from the first to the third referendum, and cut $300,000 in proposed spending.
"In past years the Board of Finance was more responsive to the voters than now," said Matt Paulson, chairman of the Bethel Action Committee. "Now they take minor amounts out, and just put it on the ballot to wear the voters down into voting yes."
But Paulson still believes the votes are needed as a check on government. "Any time voters have the opportunity to change things, it's always good," he said.
Effects of budget referendums can be dramatic, local officials said.
"It's not a case of wishing high and what not," Brookfield First Selectman Jerry Murphy said. "We will have less to work with than in the past. We'll have to cut the road program and that means some roads will not be paved. We will have to cut positions in schools."
Of the $600,000 Brookfield cut from the first to the latest budget proposal, $225,000 came from schools.
Under the current Brookfield budget proposal on the ballot, the school system could lose up to 10 staff members, may make students pay to participate in sports, and may make cuts to the gifted and talented and alternative school programs, said Goetz, the superintendent.
"There is no question this is significant," Goetz said. "There is absolutely no way we can handle this by trimming the edges in the non-personnel account."
Newtown's $95.4 million budget passed on the third try after officials cut $885,000 from the original version.
Newtown will forego plans to hire an additional police officer, with the passage third budget plan. Also, some road paving projects will again be postponed, said Rosenthal, the first selectman.
Meanwhile, Newtown school administrators are getting ready for some pain, they just aren't sure where yet.
In 2003, after three Newtown budget referendums, the school system had $1.4 million below what it asked for and had to cut the gifted and talented program, the fourth-grade orchestra and charge fees for student activities, said Evan Pitkoff, superintendent of Newtown Schools. This year it has about $800,000 less than it asked for.
Bethel experienced a similar situation last year after five budget referendums, when 10 staff positions were cut from the schools, mostly teachers, said Carlson, the chairman of the Bethel Board of Education.
This year, the Bethel school budget is down to bare bones, said Beth Gorry, chairwoman of the group Support Our Schools, which lobbies to get budgets passed in the town.
"I wish we could pass a budget and move forward," Gorry said. "Some New England towns require so much participation. It's far easier to hire a mayor and a town council than to get multiple people at multiple times to participate."
Also, referenda can be a way for elected officials to just pass the buck on important decisions, said Rosenthal, the Newtown first selectman and chairman of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.
"A council form of government would increase accountability," Rosenthal said. "If you don't like the board's decision on the budget, you should vote them out of office."
On the contrary, Murphy, the Brookfield first selectman, believes it's a way for elected officials to better respond to constituents.
"To me, this is democracy at its best. The people can decide on the budget," Murphy said, even though his town's two budget pitches lost by resounding numbers.
"The public didn't whisper to us this budget is too high, they shouted. Maybe they didn't as much shout as hit us in the head with a 2-by-4."
However, town budget referenda (which basically means "school budget-cutting") is the worst nightmare of my left-wing CT nanny-state neighbors. Some teachers in public schools get very political with the kids when things don't go their way. My kids related several times how they were assigned to scrub their own desks "because the school didn't have enough money", while fees for seniors to park their cars for the school year quadrupled 'because the budget wasn't passed'.
Meanwhile, there's three automatic (solar-powered) flagpoles in front of the school: a small stars&stripes, a bigger blue state flag, and while the third has remained empty, I suspect somewhere in the school there is a box containing a UN flag that is waiting for its day in the sky.
Politicians are the same everywhere... They never think their exorbitant spending is the problem. It is always some other unrelated issue that the voters are upset about.
One of the best things a Freeper can do is go to their own city council meetings.
How outrageous! How dare these townspeople think that their money truly belongs to them and not a government!
yep
in my county we've been having a brouhaha over the discovery that the school district spent close to a million dollars that was not theirs to spend...They wanted us to okay it - We voted NO.
They brought it back for a second vote, complete with threats that if we didn't cover it - the schools would shut down, there'd be no graduation, teachers would be out on the streets...
Again, we said NO
Then they pulled what has almost always been successful in the past to overturn our votes...they had their famous 'straw vote' where the general public hardly even knows it's taking place and/or not enough show up to override the teachers/teachers families, etc, votes.
OOOPS! They showed up and again said "What part of NO don't you understand!"
Of course, they are livid. How dare the taxpayers hold them accountable!
(Funny thing is, school stayed in session and I attend my granddaughter's graduation next week end)
So, that means they got an increase. what are they whining about?
Pain that others will feel while they continue to divert needed funds to satisfying their elitist hunger.
Why do the gifted and talented need a program? They are already gifted and talented!
Holy Cow! I live in Brookfield and never heard of this Concerned Citizens of Brookfield group.Thanks to FR for giving me my local news. Don't read the local Danbury NewsTimes cause it brings on severe heartburn and the town is so small that the weekly Brookfield Journal usually covers local do gooders but never heard of CCOB treasurer John Berger. His quote is right on-"It's a government wish list." "They know it's going down so they fill it to the max."
Connecticut ping!
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
I could better support gifted and talented programs if they were truly for the gifted and talented. Most programs are watered down versions in order to appease all the parents who think their kids are gifted and talented. A real gifted and talented program would serve 1-3% of the school population rather than the 25% that many serve.
The personal property tax structure in CT is broken. I serve on our local town council - our budget was defeated the first time and passed the second time by about 60 votes. Several towns in Eastern CT are on their 3rd try. People are fed up. It isn't going to get any better.
I am seriously considering running for First Selectman in my town (hint: it's one of the towns mentioned in this article).
How can we fix what's broken?
The problem is on the state level - unfunded mandates including special education requirements that are well beyond what most local municipalities can afford. The state shares in the cost of special education but not at levels they used to. One of my favorite state requirement - if you expel a student in your district, you are required to provide a tutor while the student is out of school. Good deal, huh?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.