When...
No. I don't think any of those things actually happened tonight. But in a related event, David Schrumm did, in fact, vote for a democratic budget. I really was surprised. I really didn't think he would.
In other Council business, the WPCD budget passed unanimously. And the pool budget passed 8-1 (White opposed). Then we got to other Council business. I don't recall anything generating much Council discussion. But when the CHS window project came up, I did ask if the state's existing "prevailing wage" law was increasing the cost of the project ($194k) and the PW Director, Joe Michelangelo, confirmed that it was... probably in the 5-10% range. (For those of you who are unaware, I wouldn't call the prevailing wage law an unfunded mandate. But similar to binding arbitration, it is a law which is restrictive in nature.)
And unrelated to the budget meeting tonight, but related to an anonymous comment in another post, if you truly believe that no member of the Council is willing to tell the BOE to "cut the fluff" from the school budget, then please read this February 2006 post of mine... detailing the fluff in the BOE budget by line item. I was glad to see they took action this year.
Tim White
In other Council business, the WPCD budget passed unanimously. And the pool budget passed 8-1 (White opposed). Then we got to other Council business. I don't recall anything generating much Council discussion. But when the CHS window project came up, I did ask if the state's existing "prevailing wage" law was increasing the cost of the project ($194k) and the PW Director, Joe Michelangelo, confirmed that it was... probably in the 5-10% range. (For those of you who are unaware, I wouldn't call the prevailing wage law an unfunded mandate. But similar to binding arbitration, it is a law which is restrictive in nature.)
And unrelated to the budget meeting tonight, but related to an anonymous comment in another post, if you truly believe that no member of the Council is willing to tell the BOE to "cut the fluff" from the school budget, then please read this February 2006 post of mine... detailing the fluff in the BOE budget by line item. I was glad to see they took action this year.
Tim White
Town Council, Budget Committee
And finally... the credits for the above pix... flying pigs - Keith Combs; fat lady sings - lastnightdiy; hell freezes over - rotoauthority
19 comments:
Tim,
Congratulations to the council budget committee – you, Elizabeth Esty, and budget committee chairman Michael Ecke. All of you did a great job. I don’t remember the last time the budget was unanimously approved by the Town Council.
The Rep minority had to vote for this least they be put into a status of lets say.....................CAVE Men!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Your boring us to tears with the CAVE men references. Try and come up with something more intelligent.
anon 6:53 Thats right . A long time .
Let's give all the TC a raise to bring them in line with other CEOs. Will 1,000,000% be in line? Yes, but currently they're at "0". Brilliant!!! No change to the bottom line. All kidding aside, the TC puts more time and passion into this job than most CEOs who are highly compensated. Thanks for all the work you do for us. As they say it will come back ten-fold.
In your twisted world I suppose Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan were cavemen too.
Can the council be 9-0 or is there some sort of minority rep rule? Because the way the Republicans acted this last term I can't think of any that would be re-elected
Harding was a CAVE man and Bush is too.
I'm a Democrat but to be fair what did the Republicans do this last term that you found so offensive?
Who cares about the past, all that matters is that what was is the best for the town. All the rest is just crap.
This was a bipartisan effort. All the Councilmen deserve credit for a good budget. They volunteer many hours and should be thanked not bashed. If anyone thinks they can do a better job - run for office!
The budget was unanimously approved last night, but still some of you insist on making ridiculous, insulting remarks. As 9:01 says, please try coming up with something intelligent.
Thank you Mr. Schrumm for your attempt at the ammended motion to consider the large surplus and creating a lock box of sorts with the taxpayers in mind. Hopefully when this is discussed at that future meeting, all councilors will agree with you set something up.
Tim, I don't understand why you call it the "democratic budget". It's almost as if you'd like to see a wedge driven in between the two parties. Isn't it just the TC budget? When the boe votes on a budget to send to the TC, we don't hear it being referred to the "democratic boe budget." I'd like to think it was a bipartisan effort and, like 1:45 says, all the council put in a lot of hard work to come up with a final budget. As one councilman said, it maybe could have been lower, but it would be like splitting hairs.
8:47 Thank you. I agree we should not class everything as Dem. vs. Rep. It was a bipartisan town budget.
Democrats Propose $650 Million Increase
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-dembudget0412,0,7206738.story?coll=hc-headlines-home
"It's almost as if you'd like to see a wedge driven in between the two parties"
No, I certainly don't want to see that.
In my opinion the reason the R's did not float another budget suggestion was for political reasons. First they were outsmarted by the D's and maybe allowed themselves to be done in that way for poitical positioning in the fall. Secondly, had they done their homework they could have presented a budget with a lower amount and forced the Town Manager to defend his positions. Thirdly, Tom Roccu started on the right of questioning towards the Supt but backed off when challenged. Make the man explain his position he works for us. It is too bad the R's have a limited pplatform for the upcoming election. Taking the stance of we will vote with the D's and attcke later is not viable plan. The D's have accomplished in the eyes of the voters; senior tax relief, lowest tax increase in years, what else do they need toask for voter approval?
The budget could have been lower, even a zero or reduction in mill rates, but there is no backbone by elected officials to make this happen. Going forward what will be done, revaluation and the party in control will plead no knowledge or control of that tax increase. A 4 mil budget to fix the pool, tax increase to fund the Northend development. The latest budget was a a trick, very little reduction in spending but cover the increase in spending with surplus dollars. Any person that folows budgetary discipline can see this.
Tim, When the pool consultant finally comes through with his report, what impact will it have on the recently adopted budget if he suggests spending a bunch more money to supposedly turn things around? Will the council consider appropriating more money? Where will they take it from? The surplus? Can you explain anything on this?
11:05... I wish I could give you some sense of what direction may be taken by the Council, but I really have no idea at this point what recommendations will be presented by the consultant.
So I can't opine in any way.
Sorry. But I will try to update you here, as soon as we get something from the consultant... which btw, we were supposed to get something by yesterday... but I haven't seen anything yet.
We are the CAVE men in town
We act like the circus clown
Extinct we will be
If we continue to flee
From good sense all around
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