To the editor:

Now I have only lived in town for 20 years, so I am not sure that my comments are of value to some, but I am an accountant and something just doesn’t add up to me. First, I want to say that my Dad did janitorial work so I am not disrespecting that type of work. What I am having trouble understanding is that we are paying a janitor over $46,000 per year and we can’t change that because we are concerned about union repercussions. However, our full time tax assessor earns $47,070 per year! I would like someone to explain to the taxpayers of this great town how that makes any sense whatsoever. Cleanliness is important, but at almost the same cost as the tax assessor? Has zero based budgeting ever been considered?

Basically, this situation is one of the systematic problems that not only hurts our town, but our entire state. We need to change the system and if that means we need to deal with union lawsuits then maybe that is the price we need to pay to fix the system once and for all. Maybe we need to take a step back to move forward, to preserve our town and make it prosper for us today and for generations to come.

The game is over. We can no longer afford big government and doing things the way it has always been done is just not working, not just in our town but all over Rhode Island. We as a town and as a state must operate lean. When your household income is cut, you tighten up on expenses. It might not make everyone happy, but what is our alternative? Taxpayers cannot continue to incur tax increases. Do we continue doing things the same old way until someday our town and our state files for bankruptcy? I think many people will be very unhappy if that occurs. Also, if we are not careful, those who decided to move here may decide to leave, which will put our town deeper into a predicament. Don’t think that is possible? See what has happened to Detroit.

If we are afraid to try to work with all employees to put our town in a better position, then maybe we should try jumping on the trend of multi-tasking and train the janitor to do some other function too! Oh wait, sorry, unions probably wouldn’t go for that either.

David Oliveira

Schoolhouse Road