Letter: Tiverton the loser under flawed budget system

Posted 6/27/17

To the editor:

Many of the candidates for Tiverton's Charter Review Commission who have written letters to the editor in recent weeks are laser-focused on one issue: the FTR.  While gathering …

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Letter: Tiverton the loser under flawed budget system

Posted

To the editor:

Many of the candidates for Tiverton's Charter Review Commission who have written letters to the editor in recent weeks are laser-focused on one issue: the FTR.  While gathering information to inform my vote, I am wary of this being the only focus of some candidates when there are many elements that the charter addresses.  Many of these candidates' letters have a desperate tone to them regarding the FTR which gives me pause as to the authors' intentions. 

My family moved to Tiverton 20 years ago.  We were fortunate to buy when real estate prices were low and our daughters benefited from many wonderful years in the Tiverton schools.  I have been a member of the Conservation Commission,  the library Board of Trustees, and have, in general, been an active citizen with an eye for many matters from preserving the town's beauty to making sure I shop local whenever possible. 

During our early years in Tiverton, I attended the Financial Town Meeting every year with few exceptions.  They were sometimes raucous affairs and the quality of the moderators varied but I knew I was participating in democracy in its purest form.  The New England town meeting is not representative democracy because every citizen who attends is a legislator in his/her own right.  Now the voters replaced this with the FTR several years ago with many citing the chaos of some meetings and low attendance. 

The beauty of the FTM was that citizens could stand at a microphone, state their names and addresses, and recommend that a line item amount be raised or decreased.  Then there would a vote.  Any registered voter could stand and request an alternative budget so to speak. 

With the FTR, any citizen can propose an alternative budget, have 50 citizens sign on, and have it placed on the ballot.  This system is not pure democracy.  The system is tipped toward those with the skill and available time to spend hours poring over the proposed budget, and developing an alternative.  Then, if the alternative budget has a bottom line less than the one proposed by the budget committee, even if the amount is small, it "wins". 

But who wins?  I know I'd like to see my street paved one of these years.  And despite the fact I no longer have school-aged children, I believe in a citizens' pact which means my tax dollars will go for things that I and my family will not benefit from directly but will move the town forward and preserve things that count like good schools, a library that we can all be proud of (recently packed one recent Tuesday afternoon when I stopped by), senior services like Meals on Wheels, visiting nurse services for those who need these, and good roads.

When you consider your vote for members of the Charter Review Commission, will you be a one-issue voter?  I certainly will not.

Maureen Morrow

Tiverton

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