Post by SyZyGy on Feb 14, 2005 14:24:49 GMT -5
The Town Council has met with the BOE (at their misnamed "Fireside Chat") at the Stillman Bldg in Olde Wethersfield, this past Saturday, 2/12/2005. No, I am sure it was a love fest, nor did they exactly break bread together. The Council went to see how badly the BOE will suck up taxpayers' dollars this year, considering how much of those dollars go to the BOE in each budget each year.
The Council (with their embedded BOE promoters and former BOE members) wanted to get a feel for how much money will be left over to run the Town and how much the Council will have to wring from the taxpayers again this year. (You know it's coming: back to back budgets of taxpayer abuse - another personal, financial tsunami which will sweep many out of their current homes and perhaps out of Wethersfield, never to return.)
You can be sure, the Council is going to take the easy way out again this year - raise the mill rate, raise the taxes! However, they will surely attempt to find little gestures here or there to make it look like they are trying to be financially attentive to the public's tax burden.
I think we should try to help them a little - before the "public hearing" at the end of their budget deliberations. Let's offer them suggestions on how to either do things in town more efficiently and / or how to gather a few more pennies from the pavement as they wait for the grand list to grow more than the pathetic amount which has just been reported.
Here's my suggestion:
In today's Hartford Courant (page B3, 2/14/2005, Metro Hartford), is an article entitled: "Town Adds 2 Polling Places - Goal Is To Ease Election Day Congestion at High School" (by reporter Daniel P. Jones). The Town of AVON apparently has had only ONE polling place for their general elections! And, we in Wethersfield have 10 (TEN)!
Avon apparently has about 11,000 voters who had to use one polling place. Now they may be going to three polling places, with a distribution of about 6, 3, & 2 thousand voters to be re-assigned; that's a simple average of about 3,666 voters per new district.
Wethersfield has roughly 17,000 registered voters now (a dramatic increase of about 1000 for the last election). Wethersfield has a simple average of about 1,700 per polling place - that's easily half of the average number they have in Avon!
This suggests that if a rich town like Avon can get by with three polling places, a poor town like Wethersfield should be able to get by quite nicely with only FIVE (yes, FIVE) POLLING PLACES and SAVE A TIDY SUM with each election or referendum!
Think of the money the Town would save on each referendum or election, say $10,000 - $12,000. Some of the unused mechanical machines would serve as back-ups if the others needed repair or replacement.
Ok, that's mine; what's YOUR idea for scrounging up a little for the Town Council?
The Council (with their embedded BOE promoters and former BOE members) wanted to get a feel for how much money will be left over to run the Town and how much the Council will have to wring from the taxpayers again this year. (You know it's coming: back to back budgets of taxpayer abuse - another personal, financial tsunami which will sweep many out of their current homes and perhaps out of Wethersfield, never to return.)
You can be sure, the Council is going to take the easy way out again this year - raise the mill rate, raise the taxes! However, they will surely attempt to find little gestures here or there to make it look like they are trying to be financially attentive to the public's tax burden.
I think we should try to help them a little - before the "public hearing" at the end of their budget deliberations. Let's offer them suggestions on how to either do things in town more efficiently and / or how to gather a few more pennies from the pavement as they wait for the grand list to grow more than the pathetic amount which has just been reported.
Here's my suggestion:
In today's Hartford Courant (page B3, 2/14/2005, Metro Hartford), is an article entitled: "Town Adds 2 Polling Places - Goal Is To Ease Election Day Congestion at High School" (by reporter Daniel P. Jones). The Town of AVON apparently has had only ONE polling place for their general elections! And, we in Wethersfield have 10 (TEN)!
Avon apparently has about 11,000 voters who had to use one polling place. Now they may be going to three polling places, with a distribution of about 6, 3, & 2 thousand voters to be re-assigned; that's a simple average of about 3,666 voters per new district.
Wethersfield has roughly 17,000 registered voters now (a dramatic increase of about 1000 for the last election). Wethersfield has a simple average of about 1,700 per polling place - that's easily half of the average number they have in Avon!
This suggests that if a rich town like Avon can get by with three polling places, a poor town like Wethersfield should be able to get by quite nicely with only FIVE (yes, FIVE) POLLING PLACES and SAVE A TIDY SUM with each election or referendum!
Think of the money the Town would save on each referendum or election, say $10,000 - $12,000. Some of the unused mechanical machines would serve as back-ups if the others needed repair or replacement.
Ok, that's mine; what's YOUR idea for scrounging up a little for the Town Council?
