Please Join Me at the Polls

Several years ago we citizens of the Town of Winchester lost our right to petition the selectmen to call for a town-wide referendum to decide the fate of the proposed annual budget. The board of selectmen wanted control over the budget. Well, they got what they wanted, and the cost to us has gone up and up over the last eight years. They have ignored the pain suffered by the voters/ taxpayers during this period—a time when businesses and industries have moved away, when a recession casts its pall on the economy, layoffs are taking place and unemployment has jumped, and when federal and state revenues have shrunk, resulting in reductions in financial aid to the towns and schools.

None of these problems have had any impact on the thinking of our government leaders—the selectmen, board of education, and superintendent of schools. They have caved in to demands of more and more wage increases. They don’t know how or lack the guts to say NO and justify it to their employees.

No one takes the possibility of layoffs seriously. Why should they when the town manager, selectmen and police chief keep hiring more help to fill town hall after the school office staff was pushed out? Why should the teachers and administrators worry when the school superintendent and Gilbert headmaster keep adding positions? Gilbert has the habit of appointing "part-timers" who soon grow into full-timers—even though, as our "town high school," they refuse to honor their responsibility to teach the town’s special students.

Both town government and school system leaders like to hide their salaries and increases behind the fiction of "fixed expenses." But when there isn’t sufficient money available, employees can decide between taking a salary freeze or seeing jobs eliminated.

Another ploy of empire-builders to keep control and frighten people is to threaten the loss of "services"—in the case of the schools, they point to the "needs" of the children. Yet when we look closely at where the money really goes, we see that it is allocated to wages, while the students and their facilities really get just the scraps of any increase in the budget.

It is time for the "real bosses" of the town, the voters/ taxpayers, to re-establish their control of the town and the way their taxes are spent.

Should we be frightened when we are told that our "best employees" will leave? Not by a long shot! Most will stay because they like their job and/or Winsted. The few who leave can be easily replaced. There are many qualified and eager job seekers out there—both new graduates and the unemployed, who include those skilled in areas as diverse as computer programming and the trades. I know this because, as a business manager in state service, I worked with many who were looking for teaching and other jobs that we would have available here in town.

All that we voters/ taxpayers of Winsted need to do as a start is to make use of the hard-won change in our town charter that was approved just last year after a long struggle by many citizens. The charter change enables you and me to have the final word as to what the town budget will be, and thus the amount in taxes that it is going to cost us. Am I saying that neither the board of selectmen nor even the annual town meeting will have final say regarding the approval of our next budget? Yes, I certainly am—and I am saying it proudly!

I believe the people of the town—out of whose pockets will come the money to pay for the budgeted expenses—should have the final say after consultation with our elected officials. I believe the people have the intelligence and concern for themselves, the children and their neighbors to approve what is needed and best for their community after listening to the presentations and appeals made by the town’s officials and other interested parties.

I know many of you are turned off by the lack of concern shown you by elected and appointed officials in our government at all levels. But you have the means and opportunity to really make changes, to make a difference in our town’s government.

So, please, for your own welfare and the well-being of the town, learn as much as you can about the proposed budget before the referendum on June 1, and the go to Pearson School between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. to cast your vote for or against the proposed budget. If you cannot get to the polls or will be out of town on June 1, you can (and I hope you will) still vote by getting an absentee ballot from the Town Clerk, Sheila Sedlack, or her assistant.

Please join me at the polls, no matter how you vote!