Vote "No" on Charter Proposal

Vote "No" on Charter Proposal

By JoAnn Fisher, Winsted

On November 6 the voters in Winsted will participate in placing elected town officials. We are also asked to vote on the proposal tendered by the Charter Review Commission on the annual town budget.

The Charter proposal basically states that the budget, as presented by the Board of Selectmen, can be altered by a handful of residents at a town meeting before it is voted on by the majority of voters in our town. I plan to vote "No" on this proposal. I feel that as a voter, I help to elect our town officials. Once elected, one of their jobs is to prepare a town budget and present it to the residents. I feel that it is unfair to allow a handful of voters to make changes to the selectmen's proposal before I get a chance to vote on the original. I have a busy life, and cannot always make it to a town meeting, but I always take time on election day to stop and let my voice be heard. I believe there are others like me, who are fairly intelligent, and if the budget is not acceptable, would vote "no" in the budget referendum. The budget would then go back to the Selectmen to make changes, and they would present it again.

Many of the people who do have time to go to the town meetings—I don't, but I do watch on TV thanks to Charter Communications—are people who don't work and are on fixed incomes. I'm afraid their motives for cutting the budget are not based on what's good for the town to grow and progress, but based on what they will have to pay in any tax increase. I think that in the long run, this will lead to a town that doesn't grow, but which instead becomes stunted and eventually regresses.

We all need to remember that the very people preparing the budget are taxpayers and will also be affected by any tax increase. I hope that when the cutting occurs it is because the area being cut is not needed at the time, not because someone who didn't properly prepare for retirement is trying to save their pennies now, at the expense of the town itself.

Thank you, and please make a point to vote on November 6.