Allow me to preface this diary by saying that this is something of personal interest to me, as well as being a bit of (hopefully) relevant social and political commentary, so I apologize in advance if it seems a bit emotionally charged.
I was witness last night to some rather terrible political shenanigans in my hometown of Winsted, CT. For those who don't live in Connecticut, or who didn't follow the news a couple of summers ago, Winsted is a small mill town in Litchfield county of about 10-12000 people, mostly blue-collar. Last night was the second town meeting to try and pass a budget for fiscal year 2008-2009. The original budget proposed by the board of selectmen was defeated in referendum last month, which meant that the budget would be adjusted by the board, then brought before the town at a town meeting again, where residents could propose cuts, which could be voted upon by those residents in attendance. Unfortunately, by the town charter, additions cannot be made at a town meeting, only cuts. Additions have to be made by the board of selectmen at their meeting.
The first few minutes consisted of the moderator reading the rules, and putting for the initial motion to send the budget to referendum (I arrived a few minutes late, after the standard opening with the pledge of allegiance, etc.). Next, one of the town selectmen read a bit about the budget, what cuts had been made, and made some comments about the current state of the town's finances: Not good. Much infrastructure (roads, street lights, etc.) is in dire need of repair, and one of the school buildings in town is currently in violation of a number of building codes, and time is running out to fix it before the federal government begins fining the town. He was followed by a man asking the town to pass the budget as written, simply to avoid any more cuts which would endanger services, as several things had already been cut which could do that, including removal of a secretarial position and over $131000 in cuts to the fire department.
The next man to speak made a motion to cut $600000 from the middle school line item for the repairs to the building. This was the money which would be used to repair the code violations I mentioned earlier, the ones that the Feds are running out of patience on. Now, while I originally didn't think he was making any sense, he had a logical reason for making the motion. He was of the opinion that the town shouldn't pay for capital projects out of the operating budget, but should put the project on a bond. This is logical; it's the way industry operates. The next speaker agreed with him, to a large extent, saying that while the work needed to be done, paying for it out of the operating budget was not wise. He likened it to not being able to buy a house until you could pay cash for it. The speaker immediately following him spoke against the amendment, putting forth a previously unmentioned bit of information about the return that the $600000 would provide: $360000. This would mean that the actual cost to the town would end up being only $240000, not $600000. The final person to speak before the amendment was put to a vote was the superintendent of schools for the town. He informed the assembly that the federal government has given the town until April of 2009 before they begin fining the town for the code violations at the middle school. This was enough to get someone to motion to move the question, which passed easily with a second and much greater than a 2/3 majority as required by statute. The machine vote which followed only needed a simple majority, and the motion was soundly defeated, 35-99 (Y-N).
A quick aside: There are 2 types of motions in Winsted town meetings. Priority motions, such as moving the question, require a 2/3 majority, allow for no discussion, and are by a simple stand-and-be-counted method. Other motions, such as voting on an amendment to the budget, require only a 51% majority and are done by machine vote.
So I went in knowing that there would be at least one, if not more than one, attempt to cut money from the budget, specifically from the education side of the budget. The town side was already eviscerated at the last town meeting, before the prior referendum (where the previous version of the budget was defeated). I am strongly opposed to any attempts to cut the town's budget, as the infrastructure and educational system are badly in need of any help they can get. More on this a little further down.
Following the conclusion of that bit, there were several more speakers, one of whom was the chief of the fire department. He spoke at length of the condition of the department (which is all-volunteer), of how with the cuts to the budget, they would be unable to train this year (the training budget was cut from $2200 to $100, not even enough to buy lunch for a training session), purchase a new hose (the current 2.5" hose they have for the hook-and-ladder truck is 25 years old), replace 4 of their trucks (which are becoming so maintenance-intensive as to be safety hazards), or replace the furnace in the center firehouse, which currently burns something close to 40 gallons of heating oil PER DAY, or about $200. PER DAY. His closing statement was particularly good: The cutting of the budget, he said, caused a drop in morale. "What will you do," he said, "when our volunteers...don't?"
Another speaker was a young woman, just laid off, speaking in favor of the budget as proposed, to prevent any further cuts. She was incredibly eloquent, saying that, even though her children were too young to be in the school system as yet, she considered every property tax she wrote as a "down payment" on their futures. I was very impressed by her devotion.
Yet another speaker, a former selectman, proposed a $500000 dollar cut to the education side of the budget, saying that there were problems with the high school that needed to be fixed. (The Gilbert School is semi-private, with its own endowment fund, board of ed, and board of trustees, and receives a contract from the town to provide services to students not only from Winsted, but also some of the surrounding small towns with no high schools of their own). Following him was the chair of The Gilbert School Corporation, who vehemently denied there was anything wrong with school, and provided some hard numbers on the actual budget that the school received in the past few years.
After him was a gentleman who speaks often and loudly at town meetings against the education system in the town, and the teachers in particular. He seems to think the teachers should pay more of their health insurance premiums, despite the fact that Winsted offers some of the lowest salaries for teachers in the entire state! Following his angry tirade against the educators, I could no longer contain myself, and put my hand up to speak.
Having been recognized by the moderator, I went before the mic. I introduced myself, as required, and gave my address in town. I didn't say much, just what needed to be said. I hate to quote myself, but I think it's appropriate here. More or less, I told the town:
I stand before you as a recent graduate of the University of Delaware and, four years ago, of the Gilbert School. I'm 21 years old, and have lived in this town my entire life, and my mother teaches here. During the past few years when I was home from school, I would go up and volunteer at Batcheller [one of the 2 elementary schools in town]. I'm going to tell you something that you might not know. I went through the school system here, and when I went to volunteer, I saw something in my mother's classroom that shocked me. I noticed on the shelf the social studies books that she uses for her 4th graders. Feeling nostalgic, I opened on up. To my horror, I saw something inside the front cover: I saw my own name. It was the same social studies book that I had used in 4th grade, and they were old books even then. The schools system needs all the money it can get, for renovations and new, up-to-date materials. Give the children of this town the education they deserve. Please, oppose this amendment. Thank you.
I then sat down, quickly. Which was good, because if I didn't, I would have fallen down, my legs were shaking so badly.
However, I had accomplished what I needed to. Someone immediately motioned to move the question. The motion was seconded, and resoundingly approved by a stand-and-be-counted vote. The machine vote on the actual amendment followed.
It was defeated 31-106 (Y-N). A motion was then made to move the original question, to send the budget to referendum. This too, resoundingly passed, and everyone went home.
So, I submit to you, Kossacks: Why are people so short-sighted? Why do the residents continue, time and again, to vote against their best interests? Properly funding a town, especially the education system, raises real estate value, which is critical in a town with an average home value of $131000 dollars. It is also critical to grow the Grand List, the list of homeowners in town who pay taxes. Without a good school system, you aren't going to attract people with children. Without good infrastructure, you aren't going to attract businesses. Yet, over and over, people vote against their best interests, in the interest of keeping taxes down. I can understand why, but that doesn't mean I like it.
Voting by fear brings nothing but tears in the end.
Thanks, dKos, for letting me rant.