Report by Paula Antolini
April 10, 2018 5:53AM EDT
LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM CYNTHIA McCORKINDALE
Letter to the Editor: The Blue Wave is Washing Away Bethel’s Most Vulnerable Taxpayers
Surf’s up! A Blue Wave is rolling through Bethel, creating vicious riptides, washing away the useless silt and mollusk shells along the beach. By silt and shells, I am referring to the majority of Bethel’s property-owning taxpayers of average means.
See, if you are lucky enough to have a job that pays you at least $100K annually, or, you’re at the other end of the spectrum making less than $10K, you’ll be fine. At one end, you won’t even notice – at the other, your family will qualify for free school lunch and affordable housing.
Then there are those of us in between, floating in the ether. If we simply go with the wave, we’ll have no choice but to join the diaspora out of Connecticut to more affordable locations.
This year, Bethel’s Boards of Selectmen and Finance have created a spending bonanza of a budget, likely believing that, to quote Bethel’s native son, P. T. Barnum, there really is “a sucker born every minute.” $500K cash was added to capital the non-recurring account with the goal of eliminating “credit card” purchases, yet, at the same time, bonding was approved for a nearly $1 million artificial turf field!
Then, to add to our pain, the multi-million-dollar police station is, according to the building committee, nearly $1 million over budget. A fact that they have known for close to a year!
People are (and rightfully so) outraged by both budget and police station fiasco. No doubt the Bethel taxpayer will be picking up the tab for the budget overrun, ultimately spending significantly more than the $14.1 million that failed its first referendum!
We need to send a clear message to town officials who are treating our tax dollars like paper. PLEASE join me by voting NO across the board on Wednesday, April 11th.
Cynthia J. McCorkindale
Bethel, CT
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