Before I begin, I would like to personally commend David Papcin’s efforts to break down the letter I wrote and respond accordingly. However, it is rather unfortunate that, not only did he completely miss the entire point of my piece, he proved my point that the entire purpose of the budget hearing was just to make the public feel like they have a say in the city government. I think Mr. Joe Jeanette said it best, it’s just more of the “Cassetti Show.”
The entire purpose of these boards, be it the Board of Apportionment and Taxation (BOAT), the Board of Education, or the Board of Aldermen, is to represent the people of the city in their decision making processes. I warned about the monopolization of these boards, and how having one political “team” control them was a terrible idea. It is a shame that we are now seeing the consequences of that, and that the youth of Ansonia’s futures are being held hostage.
Going back to Alderman Tripp’s speech at the inconsequential budget hearing, he spoke of a $1,000,000 deficit in the city budget, particularly the Office of the Mayor. Not only is there a deficit that BOAT is desperately trying to fix by taking money away from the Board of Education (which they cannot legally do), but next year’s proposed budget just pours salt in the wound.
Next year’s proposed budget calls for a $45,000 increase to the Mayor’s Office spending, a nearly 10% raise for Mayor Cassetti, as well as taking another $600,000 from the already dwindling reserve fund. As we’ve seen time and time again, this is just unsustainable. The Board of Education will continue getting nowhere close to their requested funding, and the reserve fund will continue to be carelessly spent.
In regards to budget reconciliation, yes, I do think that the Board of Education should reconcile their budget. However, Mr. Papcin seems to think that a reconciliation of the Board of Education budget and the City of Ansonia budget are mutually exclusive. They’re not.
As I said in another article, when the Board of Education gets close to spending their budget for the year, they stop spending, and funding freezes. The City on the other hand can keep negligently spending into a deficit, then inappropriately use the reserve money to get out of the red.
On the topic of transparency, Mr. Papcin conveniently left out the fact that the Board of Education has tried to have a meeting with the Mayor’s Office since February. If there is anything that lacks transparency in the City, it is the City’s spending. During the first Mayoral debate that was held by the Valley Independent Sentinel, when asked to publish the City’s checkbook, Mayor David Cassetti became uncomfortable, stating “I don’t think I’d want to do that.”
All-in-all, this shouldn’t be a political issue, and there shouldn’t be sides. This is about doing what is right for the youth of Ansonia. As I mentioned previously, more taxpayer funds are going to be wasted in an unnecessary, and very costly, legal battle. Is it worth it when you run a campaign on the slogan “Putting taxpayers first?” And on that note, if you really do put taxpayers first, then why aren’t you listening to their voices?
Views expressed in letters to the editor do not necessarily reflect the views of ValleyIndy.org.
