The following is a letter to New Hartford Taxpayers from Bob and Maria Moore:

When we, the town’s taxpayers go to the Annual Budget meeting this coming Tuesday, April 26, the official call to the meeting includes these two items:

1. To consider and act upon the town budget recommended by the Board of Finance for the Fiscal Year beginning July 1, 2011.
2. Pursuant to Section 7-7 of the general statutes of Connecticut, Revision of 1958, as amended, to adjourn said budget meeting at its conclusion and to submit item # 1 on the call of this meeting to be voted upon using voting tabulators on Tuesday, May 3, 2011 between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. Electors residing in the Voting District #1 shall vote at the New Hartford Town Hall, 530 Main Street in New Hartford. Electors residing in the Voting District #2 shall vote at the South End Fire House, 20 Antolini Road in New Hartford. Voters qualified to vote at town meeting who are not electors shall vote at their respective polling places. Absentee ballots will be available from the Town Clerk, 530 Main Street, New Hartford, CT and will be counted at their respective polling places. The question to be voted upon shall be placed on the ballots as:

“Shall the Budget of the Town of New Hartford including General Government, New Hartford Board of Education and Capital Expenditures, recommended by the Board of Finance for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 2011, be accepted?”

Voters approving the question will vote “Yes” and those opposing the question will vote “No.”

So, why is it that when we go to the Town Budget Meeting there will be no budget for us to consider, as there always was prior to 1990?

Because the town’s Selectmen, in a Special Meeting, have voted to remove Item # 1, “To consider and act upon the town budget recommended by the Board of Finance for the Fiscal Year beginning July 1, 2011″, from the agenda of the Annual Budget Meeting.

At their Special Meeting on Monday morning, April 18, the Selectmen also adjourned the budget to referendum, another action reserved for the taxpayers under state statute.

Both these actions have been taken by the town’s Selectmen since the passing of an ordinance in 1990, even while the legality of that ordinance was questioned by then-town attorney, Pickard.

Can the town’s Selectmen vote to take away taxpayers’ rights given to them by State Statute?

At the recent Selectmen’s Special Meeting, Selectman Bruce Gresczyk said that he feels that the way the town is handling the budget (removing the ability of taxpayers to make changes to the budget at the Annual Budget Meeting and sending the budget directly to referendum) is illegal and that the ordinance should be done away with.

Item # 1 reflects the right of the voters to consider the budget as provided by State Statute; removing that item diminishes our rights as provided by State Statute.

We want the Annual Budget meeting to follow the legal format set out in the Notice of the meeting, that is, to have both items # 1 and # 2 included in the agenda of that meeting. We, as taxpayers, can petition to include items to be discussed at Town Meeting. In this case, the petition is to have included in the agenda of the Annual Budget Meeting the same items as those on the legal Notice of  that Meeting.  This will allow us, the town’s taxpayers, to consider the proposed budget for the local schools and the town administration line item by line item and to reduce any line items which we feel are too high as long as the majority of the taxpayers at the meeting agree.

This is the legal process set out by State Statute for us to arrive at a budget acceptable to taxpayers after the Board of Finance has submitted a proposed budget for the taxpayers’ consideration.  This is the process we want to have  restored to us and the mechanism by which we can do this is by petition.

We are putting together a petition to keep the legal agenda of the Annual Budget Meeting intact and we are asking you, as a town taxpayer, to sign this petition. In the next few days we will be calling on you to sign the petition to keep the agenda for the Annual Budget Meeting the same as that of the legal Notice for that meeting.

In the meantime, please let us know if you would like to sign the petition, if you have any questions, or if you would like to help gather signatures. Call us at 860-309-7526 or email us at newhartfordplus@gmail.com.