The 4% Solution?

Just 4%, that's all that it is. Not that I was surprised. I think the national average is about 3%. But when the town manager projected that pie chart at the public hearing on Wethersfield's budget, that 4% sliver looked pretty small. The Board of Education's budget is 57% and growing. The rest of it is in the category of things not in our control like debt service, or untouchables like public safety and public works. As I was sitting in the high school auditorium waiting for my turn to speak for the library, I kept thinking about the four percenters--4% for the library and 4% for parks & rec. So when it was finally my turn to speak, it was as much about parks & rec as it was about the library.

In many ways, we are our natural allies. Both departments are staffed by highly trained professionals with advanced degrees who provide services in the evenings, on weekends, and all summer long, and who are usually not as well compensated as are staffs in other town departments, (especially those in the elephant in the dining room.) The library and parks & rec often serve the same families--as preschoolers, in after-school programs, and later, as seniors looking for recreation when their jobs no longer provide it. Likewise, both the library and parks & rec are well served by talented and dedicated volunteer boards. When I was a member of the Town Council, I was (by choice!) liaison to the Parks and Rec Commission; I can attest to the quality of commissioners and their tenacity and devotion to the cause. Similiarly, the library board remains one of the easiest of the town's boards and commissions for which to find willing appointees. My husband has served for many years on the Democratic Screening Committee and I can tell you, by virtue of that second hand experience, that it is increasingly difficult to find people who are willing to serve on boards and commissions, let alone run for elected office. There is, however, always a waiting list for the Library Board. In a town like Wethersfield, with an increasing number of over fifty fivers, this combined 8% solution is more than a bargain; it is where the service is!

Now, about that tax increase. I had some fun with the elected officials at the hearing, which I'll share here. We have a taxpayers group, as do so many towns, and they were predictably concerned abut the projected $440 per household tax increase that is projected in the FY 2006-2007 budget. Not to be totally obnoxious about the real burden that this may present for some of our residents, but Wethersfield is, after all, a suburban community, and $440 doesn’t go that far in a year. It may buy:
A daily coffee, and that's at Dunkin Donuts, not even Starbucks.
Extended basic cable, with no HBO.
A fuel pump for a 2003 Passat (I have that one on personal experience!)
Your windows washed in the fall.
A Big Bertha driver.
A new set of Cleveland irons.
One night at a hotel in Manhattan.
A musical instrument that your child may never again play
Membership in health club, whose doors you may never actually darken.
And my personal favorite, a pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes!