Vote on Winsted's Budget

Bob Bixby is President of the Winchester Taxpayers Assoc.

On Saturday, June 1, the voters and taxpayers of Winsted will have the opportunity to vote at referendum on the proposed town budget. At the annual town meeting, held on May 6, there was much debate about the budget, with most of the discussion centering on education expenditures. A motion to reduce the education line by more than $950,000 was voted down by the people in attendance.

I would like to clear up at least one point of information that is simply incorrect. At the town meeting, a gentleman made the statement that Winsted does a poor job of funding its education system. A look the most recent Strategic School Profile available from the CT Department of Education (see <www.state.ct.us/sde> under "School/ District Data") shows that Winsted's school funding exceeds the average level for our ERG (education reference group) and even the state average—so to make the claim that Winsted is doing poorly in education funding is false.

In the same person's opinion, teacher's salaries are so low that he could not afford to be a teacher. I may have been a bit confused as to why someone would want to teach. I had been under the impression that teaching was about developing young minds to be the future leaders, professionals, activists and teachers. I guess that in this fellow's opinion teaching should be the road to riches and a lavish early retirement. What a disservice he did to the truly dedicated educators who want to teach regardless of whether they will get rich at it.

Following this gentleman’s statements, a motion was made to reduce each department's line item by 2%. This sounded simple enough, but it soon became too complex for a vote to be taken. The result is that the proposed budget with no changes will be voted on at the referendum.

If this budget passes, your taxes will increase by 3.2 mills (or $32 for every $10,000 worth of property). Some people will say that taxes are not a factor when people are looking for a home or a place to start a business. But witness what the first factor was when a company was looking to relocate to the former B.E. Aerospace facility in Bantam: they wanted to know what the tax structure of the town was. High taxes coupled with unfavorable water and sewer rates will not make Winsted the first choice for business and industries looking to relocate to northwest Connecticut.

Remember: The referendum will be held on Saturday, June 1 from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. at the Pearson School; if you are not able to make it to the polls, you have the option of voting by absentee ballot.

Vote NO on June 1—demand a budget that is sensitive to the current economic situation in our town.