By: Bob & Maria Moore
The Board of Finance held a Special Meeting on Tuesday evening, March 22, with a twofold purpose: the first, to hear public comments on the budget process so far, and the second, to discuss the Town Budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2011-12. The meeting was held at Ann Antolini in the Multi-Purpose room to accommodate any number of residents who might turn out for the meeting.
Bob Moore, NewHartfordPlus techie, videotaped the Public Comment section of the meeting and is making that video available below.
Altogether, about two dozen residents attended the meeting and of those 8 or so gave their input on the budget. Most of those who spoke addressed the high cost of education in the budget and asked for those costs to be brought under control.
A much greater number of residents had chosen to communicate in writing with the BOF members, and of those the overwhelming majority were in support of a zero-increase budget. They, most likely, had written in response to an email that circulated among taxpayers alerting them of the 5.69% increase in property taxes that would result from the proposed budgets that had been presented at the Saturday morning Budget Workshop.see the copy of the email posted on NewHartfordPlus.
“I received 30 emails, and only one was in favor of the budgets that were proposed (at the Board of Finance’s Saturday morning Budget Workshop).” Ben Witte, BOF Chairman said. He then read aloud portions of several of the emails he had received to give a sense of residents’ input: to hold the line on spending, especially on education. “Looking at the names on these emails – they’re not the kinds of people you usually hear from.” He commented. Other BOF members agreed, saying that they too had received similar emails.
With the Public Comment portion of the meeting closed, the BOF members then turned their attention to a discussion of the Town budget for the upcoming fiscal year; see our companion report After Taxpayers Give Their Input, Board Of Finance Considers Budget, Eyes 1.8% Tax Increase.
Following is the video of the Public Comment section of the March 22 Board of Finance meeting:
