Yearly time to hold on

[Bulldog]

Once again Labor Day has past and it is time to listen to how hard the politicians are working on our behalf.

They will be outraged at the high cost of energy and will investigate "big oil" and of course nothing will happen until the next election.

Thank God hockey is back.

[Wethersfield.com]

Is there a slate of candidates as of yet. If someone has them, could they please post them. TY

[oldetowne]

Dr. Ken has put together a chart in the election day thread.

[oldetowne]

I changed the subject line, because the specific topic is one on which we all held our ankles over a year ago, and again this year.

It turns out that, unknown to anyone - or at least nobody who said anything about it - during the 2004-05 year (which included the first, bigger part of the 30% increase), the Board of Education collected substantially more money than it needed. The current estimate is between 400,000 and 500,000 of surplus that is going back to the town general fund.

Three things came to my mind, other than :

1. How can the superintendent, the finance department, and the board staff have such a poor handle on what is going on in their own department? Who is accountable for this?

2. I wonder what we are overpaying this year? If the budget for 2005-06 is based on increases over 2004-05, then whoever put the budget together was working off defective information. But then again I have confidence that between now and next June the superintendent and his horde of administrators, supported by the rubber stampers on the Board, can blow through a 500K surplus without breaking a sweat.

3. What is the Council going to do with the new-found money? There will certainly be a demand for it to go back to the Board, since it is "for the children". Maybe they can restore some of those imaginary "cuts" that the Council made.

Personally, I think this money should stay in the general fund, in contingency, for the rest of this year. Who knows what kind of winter it will be for storms? The town never budgets enough for that. Who knows how much of a hole we are already in because of increasing energy prices? I'd rather have a safety net for these expenses than to throw the money back to the same people who either lied to us about how much they needed or were so inept that they "guessed wrong" on their budget by nearly a half million dollars.

Have a good one!

[morganika]

How about a tax credit back to the people? Hmmm, that'll never happen. Not with the Russ-ian council.

[JackAss]

oldetowne, I'm sure that $500,000 is already spoken for and will not see the light of day.

Being an election year, might keep the councils fingers off of this surplus, but don't count on it.

[oldetowne]

I am sure that the pie is already being sliced up and has been accounted for.

I was just trying to let people know that the issue was out there and what I would do if, hypothetically, I was on the Council.

[oldetowne]

I watched some of the Council meeting on 16 the other night - amazed that it was actually there and you could hear AND see it.

This whole Board of Ed mystery surplus situation really bothers me. The highest paid person on town staff (Dr. Pr.) gets up and admits that the administration didn't know until after the end of its fiscal year that it had nearly half a million dollars lying around unspent. Then it takes them nearly two months to notify the town manager of the fact.

That is incompetence.

Then the manager recommends to Council that they sit on the money until the final audit is done. That makes sense. Why spend the money or move it around until you know whether it's really there or not. I mean it could disappear as quickly as it appeared.

But No. The majority on the Council wants to spend it "for the children" between now and the election, so they refer it to one of their own little captive committees to get divided up. Conveniently, an amount picked at random like $199,999, just to avoid yet another costly referendum, will get turned back to the school so that they can lose it again or spend it on things that they had already decided they didn't need to buy this year.

That is political pandering, not sound fiscal policy.

A fish rots from the head. We need new leadership in this town.

[SyZyGy]

Oldetowne,
Don't act so surprised! Look at who has been in control of the council for the last 2 years, two very long and trying years. She has had a more than malleable group to mold into whatever she feels is best for the Party (which is not necessarily best for the Town). She has puppets to play with and she knows how to put on a great show. Oh, some have learned to walk the walk and talk the talk, but it's not the same as being concerned and sincere (especially for the large (25%) number of senior citizens in Town). Just as it was with the Sassano affair, it will take something really egregious to prompt the rank and file to revolt and again let the other party take over for a while - fraud, drugs, and who knows what else.
Relax, Oldetowne; it's only politics............

[morganika]

Amen oldtowne, amen. I'm sick of their crap. Unqualified, ridiculous persons, all of them.. I'm sick of them wasting my hard earned money. For the children, I disagree. Where's their books?