Why FTA Recommends That You Vote NO
(On both the
2010 Budget and the Bonding Question)
(Please distribute this as appropriate to other concerned taxpayers. We need more supporters!)
April 21, 2010
Dear Farmington Taxpayer Association Supporter,
In these difficult economic times, our exalted Town Council has decided to try to increase our property taxes by 3.7%! This is occurring at a time when the values of our homes have de-creased by probably four times as much. The proposed (bloated) budget includes:
1) “Salary Adjustments” - Raises - for all employees (both town and Board Of Education) ranging from 2% to 6%.
2) Approximately $21,000 in overtime pay per officer for the 29 patrol officers in the Police Department – due mainly to “contractual obligations”
3) The town-owned Westwoods Golf Course is costing the taxpayers money instead of at least breaking even.
4) The Board of Education (BOE) is spending approximately $2,000 more per FHS student (over $2.4 million total) than Avon spends to educate its high school students – with little to no difference in SAT scores, graduation rates, or quality of colleges attended.
5) The total student population is going to decline for the 6th year in a row (there are over 300 fewer students than there were in 2005). Nevertheless, the number of BOE non-teacher positions has grown by approximately 10% in this budget compared to 2005 (there are 17 more non-teacher employees).
6) An 18.44% increase in the cost of the BOE’s “self-insurance/health insurance” account – while the town manager’s same costs are projected to increase only 1.9%.
And, this budget does NOT include:
1) The privatization of any services (such as cafeteria services and some maintenance services). The town could save significant $’s by privatizing.
2) The elimination of any work functions by the combining of work duties such as in the accounting, purchasing, and clerical areas.
3) Any other policy changes that could reduce costs (that we know of) such as unpaid furloughs, reduced days of operation, etc.
The end result is that practically everyone who works in town government gets a pay raise, there is plenty of overtime pay, the overly generous medical insurance plans continue, and there are no changes in jobs, work rules, or hours of operation.
ABOUT THE $2 MILLION ROAD REPAIR BONDING QUESTION:
While we agree that money needs to be spent on repairing our deteriorating roads, we strongly believe road repair money should come from current spending, (as it generally has in the past), not from debt. The reason that we have so many roads in disrepair is that the Town Council has been unwilling to reduce wasteful spending in other areas. These past few years, the Council took the "easy way out" and reduced road repair monies so they could artificially make the budget smaller. Now they see the error of their ways, but they want to borrow to fix the problem they created. Don't let them do this! We are already in debt for over $60 million and spend approximately $9 million each year for principal and interest payments on our debt. NO MORE NEW DEBT THIS YEAR! VOTE NO!
We must defeat this Budget and the Bonding Question!
We’re counting on your help. We need you to:
1) Attend the annual town meeting on April 26 at the High School and tell our elected politicians what you think of the budget and the bonding proposal.
2) VOTE NO on May 6 (NO on both the budget question and the $2 Million Road Bonding question).
3) Volunteer your time to help us distribute VOTE NO signs in town during the last weekend of April.
4) Volunteer your time of only a few hours on May 6 (voting day) at any of the 4 polling places to help distribute our literature.
5) Allow us to put a VOTE NO sign on your lawn or at your place of business.
6) Donate $’s to our fight. As frugal as we are, it does cost money to fight big government. You must use SnailMail for your donation, or hand it to an FTA board member. Thank You!
We cannot allow our high property values to be jeopardized by higher taxes. (Many property buyers are willing to pay slightly more “up front” in exchange for lower taxes going forward.)
We will continue to keep you up to date as events unfold. Thank you for your continued and much-needed support.
The Board of Directors
Farmington Taxpayers Association (FTA)
FTA Board of Directors:
Sam Iritano, Harry Kraiza, Bob Greger, Deborah Netto, Ron Faibusch, Ron Harrison
PS: To help FTA, to join us, to get on our EMail list, to contribute, or to discuss other matters, please contact us at:
Email: info@FarmingtonTaxpayersAssoc.org
Snail: PO Box 1575, Farmington CT 06034-1575 (1575 is the corrected PO Box.)
Phone: Contact an FTA Board Member
Website: FarmingtonTaxpayersAssoc.org