To the editor:

Barrington is very fortunate to have an opportunity every year to have a direct voice in how our tax dollars are spent and let our elected officials and municipal employees know of our fiscal priorities.

We are fortunate to have a Committee Of Appropriations that does a deep examination of our budgets and holds our knowledgeable professionals accountable for effective and prudent budgets. By town charter this is supposed to be a non-partisan board tasked with making “recommendations for expenditures by the Financial Town Meeting.” It is not tasked with influencing policy and has consistently avoided doing just that.

Unfortunately, there is also an annual exercise to use our Financial Town Meeting to forward personal agendas and politics. This year is no different. Once again, special interest groups seek to reduce the budget of our high performing schools, not because they believe our taxes are too high or too much is spent on our schools, but because they want to thwart a School Committee policy. They have openly admitted; online, in a letter left in residents mailboxes and in a recent Barrington Times interview, that an amendment to reduce the school budget by $246,000 is merely to “send a message to the School Committee” about school start times. Lisa Daft has signaled that she and John Alessandro are running for COA to make the board "not pro sst.” 

I reject using our Financial Town Meeting as a place to forward personal agendas. I reject politicizing our COA to stop a School Committee policy. I certainly reject a petition whose intent is to undo an election that had thousands casting their preferences. 

Please come to the Financial Town Meeting on May 22. Please stay until the end to elect three members to the COA. Please vote your conscience.

Pam Lauria

Barrington