Letter: Spending down Tiverton surplus is fiscally reckless

Posted 4/25/17

To the editor:

Having served the taxpayers of Tiverton over 18 years on the Tiverton Budget Committee, I can tell you public service is not easy. Balancing everyone’s interests, not just your …

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Letter: Spending down Tiverton surplus is fiscally reckless

Posted

To the editor:

Having served the taxpayers of Tiverton over 18 years on the Tiverton Budget Committee, I can tell you public service is not easy. Balancing everyone’s interests, not just your own, is the key to providing appropriate recommendations for the entire taxpayer base.

One particular area of concern comes to mind in light of the recent heavy handedness of some callous budget committee members. The school department does maintain annual surpluses. That annual surplus has always been used to provide the community with corrective actions towards maintaining and improving capital projects.

Why is this significant you might ask? Well for many years, our budgets did not provide any funding to deal with improvements or maintenance which ultimately resulted in a community-wide movement that approved the construction of three new schools. Those construction costs and subsequent tax increases have caused much dismay and friction among a handful of outspoken tax rebellions.

Operationally, the schools do provide the correct balance of programming that achieves a very broad spectrum of services for those aiming toward a college future and for those who aren’t college-bound but are geared more toward technological or service-related fields. Superintendent Bill Rearick, Finance Director Doug Fiore and the school committee members have been extremely honest and vigilant to ensure that any surplus generated is used to resolve one-time, large capital expenditures.

If your current budget committee was serious about your school funding, then then ask them where in the school budget did they approve funding needed to resolve the outstanding capital and maintenance projects that are in dire need of being fixed. The simple answer is there isn't any money — do more with less is their reply.

Surplus funding has historically been used on ADA items, bleacher replacements, paving, roofs, heating, windows, septic system, ball fields, band uniforms, auditorium seating, school lockers just to name a few. Using surplus funding to provide standard operational programming is a gimmick that causes structural deficit spending. Think about it — the surplus that was generated can't be regenerated again if you actually spent it down on a programmatic need. The money is gone and you now have to appropriate new funding to provide for the program or you eliminate the program to keep your taxes stable.

Katz-Caron-Driggs-Hollerback and others only care about their own personal wallets. Tiverton has received award after award as one of the best systems in the state because of the people you have managing the day-to-day functions and dedicated staff who work with your kids.

Please do your research. I wholeheartedly suggest you trust your school administration and school board to continue doing what is right as they have always been fiscally responsible. Yes, you will hear that I moved my residence from Tiverton, but we still own Tiverton real estate, conduct a Tiverton business and pay our fair share of taxes to the town of Tiverton.

Christopher Cotta

Little Compton

Mr. Cotta is former chairman of the Tiverton Budget Committee.

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