By Will Collette
On Monday – not Tuesday, but Monday, June 4, Charlestown will hold an
all-day referendum on the town budget for Fiscal Year 2013 which starts on July
1.
The latest issue of the official town newsletter The Pipeline has a banner headline that reads “Your Vote Counts!”
Well, of course it does, but in our annual budget vote where the
turn-out is usually very low, proportionally, your vote actually does count more
than usual.
Just take a look at last year’s budget vote. On the ballot along with the town budget was a separate budget question asking whether the voters approved paying $1.19 million for new beach sanitary facilities at the two town beaches.
This measure was sharply opposed by the Charlestown Citizens
Alliance (CCA) but supported by most sensible people in town. Tom Ferrio and I
did a lot of writing in what was then the very new Progressive Charlestown.
Charlestown Democrats organized and the turn-out went up sharply. However, it still amounted
to less than 600 voters (about 1 in 10 registered voters). The beach facilities bond issue won by 11%. But the actual number of voters comprising that winning margin was only 66! Every one of those 66 votes really did count.
In this year’s budget vote, there are no major contentious
issues.
The Town Council removed the $475,000 the Budget Commission
had recommended taking from the town surplus to fund the town’s piece of the
Y-Gate Scandal.
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| No joy for the boys on the Chariho vote |
The cost of the Chariho School System which accounts for
around 60% of the total Charlestown Budget has already been voted on and
approved by Charlestown
voters on April 10. Attacks against Chariho and the Chariho budget by CCA Town Councilors Boss Tom Gentz and Deputy Dan Slattery fizzled. You won’t see the Chariho budget on the June 4 ballot
since it has already been approved.
You will see an overall budget increase of 2.87% and an
almost matching property tax increase of 2.95%. Click here for more details and analysis.
The Budget Commission projects the new tax rate will be $9.31
for every thousand dollars of property value, up from the current rate of
$9.06.
The Budget Commission recommended using $1,125,000 in extra
town surplus money for needed for necessary capital expenditures.
Charlestown currently has more than its preferred level of
undesignated surplus funds on hand than the amount the Budget Commission
considers to be ideal.
They are recommending bleeding off the surplus on things like equipment, vehicles, road projects or maybe a trip to Foxwoods. Or spending it on Y-Gate which was probably even more irresponsible than blowing the money at the blackjack table.
They are recommending bleeding off the surplus on things like equipment, vehicles, road projects or maybe a trip to Foxwoods. Or spending it on Y-Gate which was probably even more irresponsible than blowing the money at the blackjack table.
Fortunately, there was enough public resistance to Y-Gate
that the Councilors made their first smart Y-Gate decision and took the
$475,000 off the table. For now.
Missing from the picture is the tax relief town Democrats have been calling for. Just taking the $475,000 the Budget Commission
recommended and that the Town Council almost approved for Y-Gate, they could
have given a $200 Homestead Tax Credit to
full-time Charlestown
residents. If they took the whole excess surplus, they could have raised it to
$500 per household or more.
But the CCA and its Town Council majority don’t believe the average Charlestown working family deserves a tax break – they made that clear
last December and since. So Charlestown
taxpayers will have to wait until the next Town Budget to see new priorities
put before them.
But even with nothing on the ballot but the budget, do your
duty and come out and vote on June 4.