OK- So Now What?
Budget Referendum- YES: 530 NO: 864 Source: Woodstock Town Website
This is an easy one. We should NOT simply rely on our officials to make arbitrary cuts to see if they fly in the next referendum. We should require the transparency & disclosure we have been asking for and is our right- and I’m not talking about meaningless rhetoric from the Playbook & pie charts.
The Town & Education budgets need to be scrutinized from the top down with common sense, in public for everyone to see and understand. It’s time for our officials to make their case with facts. We should expect and accept nothing less.
This is an easy one. We should NOT simply rely on our officials to make arbitrary cuts to see if they fly in the next referendum. We should require the transparency & disclosure we have been asking for and is our right- and I’m not talking about meaningless rhetoric from the Playbook & pie charts.
The Town & Education budgets need to be scrutinized from the top down with common sense, in public for everyone to see and understand. It’s time for our officials to make their case with facts. We should expect and accept nothing less.
Now that sends a message!
I was very pleased to see a better turn out on the vote. Hopefully this is a sign of more people becoming more involved and aware.
I want to thank you all for the info provided here as well as the chance to see our town hall meetings on video. A special thanks to Dave Richardson for standing up for our rights even when it hasn't been the popular thing to do.
Transparency and Disclosure in our budget would be a refreshing change. After many hours of scrutinizing the Educational stats for Connecticut towns I am still confused regarding our high ratio of non-certified versus certified teachers. It would be nice to be able to ask a direct question and get a direct answer.
Is that hope I see on the horizon?
Dear WT,
Great job in getting out the information and winning, but I cannot help but think this is a "same ol'Woodstock" result. What I mean by this is one part of the citizens will defeat a budget or uphold Prop 46, but then the leaders of these initiatives are rarely put in leadership roles in the Town. It seems as if citizens will vote their friends in, and usually not their smartest ones, and then not give them their money (because somewhere they know not to trust them with it). Or is it possible that one group of citizens votes on budget issues and another votes in the elections? I do not know, but an analysis of voters in the elections as compared to budget referendum might reveal something. I tried this analysis when in politics, but I could come up with no conclusive results.
I think nothing will change until someone like Preston Shultz is the chair of the BOE and Dave Richardson is chair of the BOF (closest it came to happening was with Ernie Wetzel as 1st Selectman for four years and Margaret Wholean might have been good during her second term if she were not betrayed by her own Democrats). It would be a beautiful thing.
So again nice results, but too bad that the results probably do not have legs.
Yours sincerely,
Jay Livernois
I agree. I want to see scrutinization of the budget. Particularly the Government budget. We should demand 0% raise for town hall, cut the fire protection $129K slush fund, suspend the open space aquisition $ since we have reval.costs to consider this year, and spread reval costs over two years. Dave "because we always do it that way" Hosmer failed at the bonding and now at the budget because he fails to communicate and justify need. Time for a change. Time to get some real conservatives in these positions.
I would like to see the State as well as the town disclose all spending in a printed form so the people who pay the taxes will know where all the money is going "Freedom of information". I would like to know how come property values are so inconsistent, I would also like to know since it has been said Woodstock encourages new business, just how much they contribute to the grand list and or income of the town. I would also like to know since Woodstock Fair is a 501-3c charity just what charities they contribute to. Why they do not contribute to Woodstock schools and or town. How about the other people who make Millions during the Fair, do they contribute ? Maybe if those who get just gave back a little the burden of the tax payers would be less painful .
I really wish we had a honest building inspector, Zoe, and town employees...Guess I might as well buy a power ball ticket, same odds !