TO: Ansonia Voters
FROM: Alderman Charles Stowe
RE: 2014 Budget Process
On Monday, May 20th the Board of Appropriation and Taxation (BOAT) rejected the 2014 budget proposed by the Finance Committee and raised our taxes. The voices of the citizens of Ansonia were not heard. The voice of the Board of Aldermen wasn’t heard.
How did this happen?
Every year, the Finance Committee (a bipartisan group of elected Aldermen), works as a team to develop a budget which balances the needs of the City with the economic realities of the citizens.
This year, BOAT (an appointed committee) rejected the Aldermen’s proposal and increased taxes to give the Board of Education $1M. By law, the amount budgeted to the Board of Ed cannot be reduced next year. What we committed to this year is the minimum the Board of Ed will receive next year.
I know that most of us in Ansonia cannot afford another tax increase, even for our most important investment, our children. The citizens of Ansonia are struggling. Ansonia’s unemployment rate is 10%. We have many senior citizens on fixed incomes. We have seen the value of our homes plummet and the cost of groceries and gas skyrocket.
What is the answer?
- Why not ensure that the citizens have a voice and revise the City Charter to require a vote when a proposed budget increases more than 1.5 percent? Why shouldn’t you have a say in a democracy?
- And, why not get involved? Ansonia needs your voices and ideas and energy. There are many ways to help and many of us are already working hard to ensure Ansonia’s future, for example, join Vinnie Scarlata on the Economic Development Commission to bring businesses into the City.
Please contact me if you want to learn more about how to change Ansonia’ budget process.
Alderman Stowe:
I can say that I have not seen my alderman in almost a year. He did show up Friday night at my house after my calling him out on Facebook and spoke to my babysitter. He was not there again on Monday night. After talking with my neighbors, none of them have seen Phil Tripp in almost a year either.
While I agree with you that things need to change, the very last thing Ansonia needed was to pay someone for a firetruck storage, as well as a scoreboard.
Personally, if my taxes are going up for the benefit of our children – I am all for it. I am NOT however for nonsense such as the above. Those two expenses alone are four hundred thousand dollars. How many books will that buy for our kids? How many teachers’ salaries are that? Last year the big complaint was is that our teachers do not stay – they use Ansonia as a spring board to another job. I can’t blame them if it is consistently shown that projects like this are more important than teaching our children and giving them the most basic tools to do so.
Susan Bosworth