Republican Big Spenders in Winsted

For many years, especially from the time I served on the Winchester Board of Education (1989-93), I have been amazed at the willingness of the perennial Republican majority on the Board of Selectmen to spend and tax the voters and property owners of the Town of Winchester. The most recent example is the annual town meeting held at Gilbert on Monday, May 6, which adjourned without a reduction of the bloated proposed budget for 2002-03.

Why do I describe it as "bloated"? Look at the statistics (which I have rounded off): proposed budget for 2002-03 is $29,207,000; approved budget for 2001-02 is $26,700,000; proposed dollar increase is $2,507,000 (or 9.3%); proposed mill increase is 3.2 mills.

Well, why didn't the people at the annual town meeting on May 6 reduce the proposed budget if it was so far out of whack? Attempts were made. A reduction of $954,246 to the proposed education budget (set at approximately $17,000,000) was defeated 177-96, while an attempt to reduce both the proposed education budget and municipal budget (an additional $12,000,000) by 2% was declared null and void by legal gobbledygook and was never voted upon.

The result was what Selectman David Cappabianca pleaded for at the start of the town meeting. The total budget of $29,207,000 proposed by the selectmen was sent to referendum unchanged—so that, in his words, "the 6,000 electors [will] vote and tell us if its a good idea."

What if the people who vote at the referendum at Pearson School on Saturday, June 1 indicate that the proposed budget is not a "good idea" by voting it down? Selectman Cappabianca, who spoke out often during the meeting and seemed to speak for the board—or, at least, the Republican majority on the board—said that "the selectmen would make the required adjustments."

Well, I will give Selectman Cappabianca and his fellow Republican board members the benefit of the doubt regarding what he calls the "required adjustments." He and they will have the guidance of a large minority of those at the town meeting as to what should be cut—namely the education budget's bottom and only line in the proposed budget of 2002-03, and a 2% reduction in not only the education budget, but every line item of the proposed municipal budget, except legally binding debt service.

Please, Selectmen, don't disappoint me by taking the tack used in the past. Excuses such as: only 25% or 1/3 of the possible 6,000 electors/ property owners voted in the referendum, so there is no clear mandate to cut the budget. Or, the rejection means people want a higher, not lower, proposed budget. Or, let's reduce it by $10,000 or $25,000 or some other small amount and send the budget back for another vote, and then another vote if that’s rejected, repeated until the people get disgusted and stop going to the polls. I've lived it!