Report by Paula Antolini, April 29, 2020, 5:35PM EDT
(File photo ©2015 BETHEL ADVOCATE / Paula Antolini)
OPINION / LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Oh the irony! Democratic leadership in Hartford and Bethel coordinating efforts to deny taxpayers the right to vote on a tax increase!
How often are conservative Republicans accused of “voter suppression” for supporting voter identification requirements or opposing “mail in” and “same day” voting protocols?
How ironic that Progressive Left Bethel, home to the Anti-Fracking Ordinance, Annual LGBTQ Parades, Teacher-Sanctioned Anti-Trump Student Walkouts, Solar Farms, Atheist Inclusivity and the Transit Oriented District, adding voter suppression to their list of just causes.
It’s unbelievable that the party of “inclusion” and “equality” would willingly and obediently comply with Gov. Lamont’s murky, contradictory, poorly-worded Executive Orders that lend themselves neatly to Town Attorney manipulation.
If First Selectman Knickerbocker’s interpretation and acceptance of the Governor’s Executive Orders that preclude our right to vote is not challenged, we will be setting a precedent where four partisans of our seven-member Board of Finance can raise taxes on homes, cars and businesses without the approval of a voting majority at referendum.
This will surely be exploited by some future Charter Revision Committee to argue against requiring that Annual Town Budgets be approved by the “Consent of The Governed” at referendum.
The most important takeaway from this pandemic is that government has unlimited power to control and direct every aspect of our personal lives. There are politicians that will surely use this crisis as leverage in order to herd us along until we arrive at what they see as “Brave New Bethel Connecticut.”
The Bethel Action Committee invites you to join us in opposing this usurpation of power and unprecedented infringement of the citizens’ right to vote on proposed tax increases.
Billy Michael
Bethel, CT