Dave Richardson Addresses the BOF 9/22/09
Dave Richardson addressed the BOF last night, and if you do not know Dave this is a great opportunity to assess him as a candidate for the board seat that he seeks. I think you will find that he possesses expertise that Woodstock cannot do without.
On another note, Mrs. Rich, in response to some of Dave's points appears to have revealed that it has been historical practice to calculate Prop 46 worksheets on the initial PROPOSED budgets rather than budgets brought forth for APPROVAL and not updated. Considering that proposed budgets mean absolutely nothing, as you can imagine, if this is in fact true, we might have to apply to the Superfund to clean up this mess.
Dave's Handouts PDF
On another note, Mrs. Rich, in response to some of Dave's points appears to have revealed that it has been historical practice to calculate Prop 46 worksheets on the initial PROPOSED budgets rather than budgets brought forth for APPROVAL and not updated. Considering that proposed budgets mean absolutely nothing, as you can imagine, if this is in fact true, we might have to apply to the Superfund to clean up this mess.
Dave's Handouts PDF
Considering that initial proposals, especially for transportation and SPED, have a history of increases having been reduced by 50% or more (which can be hundreds of thousand of dollars) during the budgeting process, this is not some minor little issue, not to mention the concept that you would calculate the Prop 46 limit on something other than the actual budget being put forth for approval is just ludicrous – why not just make up any old number because that’s essentially what you’re doing by using that first proposed budget – it’s a start not an end. And then we have 2007 when the error was spotted and corrected immediately !
Maybe we should take this to the next logical level- a provisional budget which can be used to create the preliminary Prop 46 calculation (Prop 42 for those intellectuals that study at the Café) which should be used to make a provisional mil rate. Now we can vote on the provisional mil rate at the provisional referendum for the provisional budget. Gee, this sounds pretty good, maybe we should have the provisional Town Treasurer with a provisional Board of Finance, and our provisional 1st Selectman clearing the way for our provisional Town Garage paid for by our provisional bonding. We could pay our Town taxes with our provisional income based on our provisional refund from our provisional Federal and State tax filing.
You know this sounds crazy but this is the way it works down at the Town Hall. By the way this is not fiction but non-fiction Woodstock style.