"The most important political office is that of the private citizen."

"Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”   -Chief Justice Louise Brandeis

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It's "budget time" in Winchester town.

Do YOU know where YOUR wallet is?

Selectmen's PROPOSED town budget for 2013-2014: $33.6 millions

Most of it paid for by YOUR property taxes

And your sewer and water rate increases.

A LOT of it dependent on STATE (i.e. YOUR) money...

(see below info from your State Rep, Jay Case) ..the town has NOT yet received.

AND: we still have:

-no reported or completed audits for this year or last,

-NO "forensic audit", yet,

-NO Town Annual Report,

-NO Balance Sheet showing current & long-term liabilities or assets or net worth of the town, and

-NO "Income Statement."

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Municipal Bond Investors will not buy bonds offered by the Town of Winchester (at least not at affordable rates, if at all) we are advised by reliable bond counsel - but some of your Selectmen want you to approve $33.6 million in town spending for 2013-2014 - a 5 mill increase, to keep their pet projects and DOUBLE DIGIT (10%) spending increase going.

-So why should we FINANCE selectmen who can't even get their financial house in order sufficient to seek funding from municipal bond investors?

-How much MORE will they make YOU pay when State and other revenues they say will be coming in do not materialize?

-How much will Selectmen's 2014 "OVERSPENDING" amount to?

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From State Rep Jay Case on what Democrat leaders propose for

increases to State spending this coming year:

$2.4 Billion Deficit

How we got here…

• $1.5 Billion dollar annual tax increase

• First two years of the Malloy Administration: $1.5 Billion spending increase, an increase of 8%.

• SEBAC savings never materialized:

  • Employee suggestion box – $180 million

  • Technology Initiatives – $90 million

  • Pensions will cost taxpayers $252 million more next year than they did just two years ago.

  • Retiree healthcare will cost taxpayers $208 million more than
    two years ago.

• Last year, 3,680 people left state service; however, 5,387 were hired.

• Just last month, 500 new state employees were hired according to the Department of Labor.

Spending…

• Puts the priority on the government class and ignores the private sector.

• Over the spending cap by $582.4 million and the $846 million in each of the two fiscal years, respectively.

• Creates even more spending cap exemptions than Governor Malloy.

• Increases spending by $1.9 billion – 9.5% over two years

• Spending money like we were in good economic times, when revenue was flowing in and we were able to fill our Rainy Day Fund with $1.4 billion.

• Out of sync with economic indicators:

  • Personal income growth in CT was second lowest in the nation last year – only 2% growth compared to 3.5% nationally.

  • Inflation rate is only 1.5%

  • Hourly earnings have decreased by $.25 over the past 12 months

State Programs…

• Continues devastating hospital cuts

• Adds back millions of dollars in programs proposed to be eliminated by Governor Malloy

• Creates new agencies and offices: Office of Early Childhood Development and Office of Injury Prevention. Continues new Housing and Aging Agencies.

• $5 million more for School Based Health Centers. Why are we doing this? Is $384 million in additional Medicaid funding not enough?

• Eliminates the Governor’s proposal to move adult HUSKY patients to the health exchange.

• Reduces state funding for retired teacher healthcare.

• Increases revenue from a plan to auction off electric ratepayers to an unachievable amount - $100 million.

Taxes…

• Makes the hospital funding scheme a pure and permanent tax on hospitals and healthcare.

• Keeps the scheduled increase in the Petroleum Gross Receipts Tax – a tax increase of $60 million.

• Hits the middle class again by imposing a full sales tax on downloads of digital products.

• Continuing the surcharge on corporations promised to go away on July 1^st.

• The wrong way to do the electric generation sunset. We should be cutting spending, not borrowing.

• This is just a start. Bonding today will lead to more tax increases tomorrow.

Borrowing…

• CT has the fourth highest debt in the country.

• More than a billion dollars will be shifted from the operating budget to borrowing.

• Pushes off either $150 million or $196 million a year in Economic Recovery Notes. Not sure because Finance and Appropriations do different things with this.

• Borrows $450 million for cash flow, under the guise of GAAP compliance.

• Borrows for non-profit capital costs, so that we can justify not giving them a COLAs

• Borrows for nursing homes for the same reason – no COLAs

• Doubles Town Aid Road borrowing.

• Shifts a large portion of the Municipal Revenue Sharing from operating to borrowing – over $50 million, and eliminates the rest – about $40 million.

• Continues borrowing for Stem Cell Research.

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News:         www.cnn.com                       www.nytimes.com

Schools:    www.winchesterschools.org/

Town Hall:     www.townofwinchester.org/

Beardsley Library happenings:    www.beardsleyandmemorial.org/

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