The Infiltration of the Naysayers

I couldn't believe Sam Chapman was serious when he stated that: "There is a group of naysayers in town," presumably referring to the Winchester Taxpayers Association. He is quoted further in the Waterbury Republican-American of July 18 as saying: "These individuals have infiltrated our community meetings, our political parties, our Board of Education and our media with constant negativity and misdirection for two purposes: to save a few dollars and to feel important."

I'm not a card-carrying member of the Taxpayers Association and never have been, but if I didn't know better, his description would have scared me away from possibly joining them. Why? Members are made to sound like dangerous outsiders or aliens. This style of denouncing people hearkens back to the way communists were denounced and said to be operating and threatening our American way of life during the Cold War and earlier. To describe them as infiltrating our community meetings, parties, media, etc. certainly makes them sound un-American and dangerous.

What do the terrible Taxpayers want? To grab control of Winsted, to set up a terrorist cell, or to overthrow the American republic? No, Mr. Chapman says it is all just "to save a few dollars and to feel important." If that is all they are after, why is his group, "Friends of the Community," so angry with and fearful of them? Is it because the "Friends" want to spend a few more dollars and to have the townspeople not think that they are important? I don't think so. Rather, I wonder if they don't have their own hidden agendas.

One inference that Mr. Chapman made which is wrong and which I resent was that his group’s turnout was "for the purpose of telling the local tax association that we will not support your proposed budget." The budget that was sent to the townspeople for referendum on July 20 was passed by a vote of 77 to 44 during a legally called and conducted town meeting. Many of us who attended that town meeting and approved the budget are not members of the Taxpayers Association. To tar the Taxpayers as narrow-minded—and, by implication, all who voted for the budget with this same brush—is an insult. All the other town citizens and property owners could have attended this meeting and voted as they wished.

One thing Sam Chapman and his group should be thankful for is that the town charter now, after years of struggle, gives him and the "Friends" another chance to vote on the budget. Last year a town meeting at Regional 7 attended by some 200 people—not many more than at the most recent town meeting about which Mr. Chapman now complains—passed an expensive budget by a majority of only 12 votes. At that time there was no charter provision for the budget to be approved by referendum. The school supporters and town employees didn't cry foul then. Nor did the big-spending Republican majority of selectmen or their supporters accuse that small group of 200 of being "irresponsible" or of having "forced" its budget on the majority of 6,000 registered voters.

Instead of running to call for another commission to revise the town charter to tilt it their way, the five Republicans who form the majority on the Board of Selectmen should look at the high level of spending they favor at this time of disaster for the economy. The Bush and Rowland administrations are cutting spending. On July 18, voters in Litchfield rejected their budget for the second time, and officials there say they will have to do some drastic trimming of the town’s proposed budget.

Mr. Chapman and "Friends," you are out of step with the people of Winchester. Watch out or you could find the charter provision for referendum—through which you attempted to have the town meeting-approved budget defeated last Saturday—revised out of existence by the selectmen you support. Let the people decide at each step in the process, as is their right as citizens and taxpayers! I do not always agree with their decisions, but they usually do what is best for the welfare of the town and its residents.