Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Letter to the Editor: Council Should Question BOE Budget Increase

In comment on his facebook page, that with permission, resident Paul Dodge has allowed the Insider to publish as a letter to the editor he responds to the proposed BOE budget asking for an increase of 10% - $8.4 million in spending. This was originally announced in a article in the Hartford Courant published here: http://www.courant.com/community/middletown/hc-middletown-school-budget-1219-20121220,0,7651409.story
In the article Councilman Tom Serra (D) states that with this budget citizens will face an increase of 2.4 mils in taxes. This statement is misleading because the real increase, if the Common Council accepts this BOE budget, which the Democrats on the Council are advocating for, will have to be much higher as it does not include projected spending from the City side.
Letters to the Editor are published as a courtesy and opinions and claims are the sole responsibility of the author, not necessarily the staff of the Middletown Insider.
I agree that education is extremely important especially for our youth, BUT I have to ask the question at what cost to the taxpayer? With every budget proposal there is a need for additional taxpayer money. Does anybody ever ask WHY? 

In the private sector there is such an incentive device known as "pay for performance".In the public sector it is always a matter of more taxpayer revenue without much justification or explanation.I propose that the taxpayers representatives (Common Council),insist on the School Budget for calendar year 2013-14 include GOALS from the Superintendent and any budget considerations should include being able to measure PERFORMANCE V.GOALS.These are uncertain times as alluded to by Mr.Serra as we face uncertainty from economic performance,as well as lower tax revenues from both Federal and State levels.If you pay attention as to just what occurred with the 'FISCAL CLIFF' negotiations in Washington you can see exactly what may happen when you don't adopt a working budget,or have some measurable goals v. results.

My position would be for the Common Council "just say no" to any School increase without measurable goals from the Superintendent.The Middletown taxpayers have a right and the School Department has an obligation to show performance versus goals, in my opinion.


Paul Dodge,
Middletown

5 comments:

  1. The writer fails to understand that Boards of Educations are creatures of the state, not the local yokel towns. He needs to take his issue to the state lawmakers and get the law changed. Like it or not, the state law dictates how BOEs submit their budgets and local BOEs do not have to submit budgets in a town/resident prescribed format du jour.

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  2. C'mon, did you see the performance of the school board employees at last night's council meeting? They can't even explain how they are spending the money they already have! They were unprepared, couldn't answer the basic questions that were asked of them and shuffled their papers around while giggling as if they thought it was funny.

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  3. I watched the council meeting last night and heard the salary increase the administration and teachers would be getting under this budget in step increase and raises. That would come out to a million dollars. My question is where is the other $7.4 million going towards. I understand they need new computers but that is not a million dollar hit nor is cafeteria budget.
    So my question where is the money going towards. That is a question we all should be asking.

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  4. Maybe the schools wouldn't need more money for the cafeteria budget if they would stop giving the janitors a free lunch. Why should parents have to pay more for their kid's food so these guys can eat for free?

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  5. Certaiin teachers and admin are asking for 3% raises in this budget! That's where the money is going! Meanwhile CT has 7% unemployment. Greed and door the children .....

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