Budget referendum split
Oxford is in a heated debate. The question posed is whether to bifurcate their town and school budgets when sent to referendum (Waterbury Rep-Am, by Quannah Leonard). If we were doing this here in Cheshire, I would solidly support splitting the two. It would provide for more accountability.
Tim White
State Representative candidate
Bethany, Cheshire & Prospect
TimWhite98@yahoo.com
9 comments:
Tim - What would it take in Cheshire to try the same thing? Would you change the charter?
1) I'm not an expert on this, but I believe it would require a charter revision... which is significant.
2) Yes. I would be willing to revise the charter... it's been at least ten years.
As well, if there were a charter revision, I'd like to separate the "Honorary Mayor" title from the Council Chairman... it's fine with me if the Council Chairman is the "Mayor," but I don't see a need to link the two titles.
This idea should be pursues, discussed and seriously considered for Cheshire. Like most other things, things change, and maybe the time has come to seperate out the budgets for the Town and the BOE. By doing so it would place total responsibility on the BOE members and the Supt for the budget development, justification and approval. In todays world it becomes easy to pass the buck and blame the Town Council for any reductions in dollars. I believe if it your budget your should be responsible and accountable for the development, justification and spending. If the budget is based on solid planning, real needs that are demonstratable, then approval by the community will not be an issue.
Tim,
When was the last charter revision?
It seems that we are approaching the time frame for a revision.
Tim,
When was the last charter revision?
It seems that we are approaching the time frame for a revision.
generally, charter revision occurs over a two year period. The last time a revision was completed was 1996... I think.
Giving the BOE sole control of 65% of the towns budget, with no oversight from the town manager or town council, would be a HUGE mistake. Careful what you wish for.
Watching the BOE meeting this week, Spt. Florio noted an anticipated decline in students as "good news" (ie: there will be more money to spend per-student).
Did anyone on the BOE take exception and suggest that maybe some of those savings should be returned to taxpayers? Of course not!
If BOE had to stand for election as a seperate taxing authority, directly responsible for the 2/3 portion of the property tax bill received by taxpayers, we'd see a lot more cost-conscious candidates running and seriously questioning BOE expendetures. As it is now, BOE is given a blank check each year and the Council has to take the heat for tax increases.
At first I thought also that it would be a good idea for the BoE to stand on its own with its budget as it would make the superintendent more accountable for where the money is going. But when you look at how the BoE's budgets have been approved "as is" more or less by the members, I tend to doubt it would be a good thing to separate them. For several years there's only been a handful of residents that come to budget meetings seriously questioning expenditures and they all get the run around when answers are given (if you can call them answers). Sure the Board members ask questions too, but in the end they go along with the superintendent because they all think if they cut too much they'll be viewed as anti-education. And unfortunately there are too many people in this town that think that spending more on education will make it better. They believe all of what the super says and won't want much of anything cut. So if separated, we still wouldn't see a big difference in the bottom line numbers. What we really need are more cost conscious BoE and TC members.
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