Issue #24: All of us need to respect the budget process, and respect the people we elected to office who give their valuable time and skills to the community. We also ALL need to play by the same rules so that Hebron taxpayers can make an informed decision on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 – Referendum Day.
The various budget meetings, which are occurring every Tuesday and Thursday throughout the month of March, are posted on the Town of Hebron website, http://www.hebronct.com/pdfs/calendar.pdf. The detail of each meeting isn’t posted there, but you can find it on page 29 of the Hebron Town budget, which is located on our Documents Tab, or you can download it yourself at http://www.hebronct.com/pdfs/finance_section/assessment3.pdf.
Most of those meetings involve individual town departments. The Hebron Board of Education will be presenting its proposed budget to the town at the Thursday, March 18 meeting, 7:30 p.m. at the Douglas Library. The RHAM Board of Education will also be presenting its proposed at the March 18th meeting.
We are respectfully asking that if you attend any of the March meetings, go for the purpose of listening and learning. The process is that these are the meetings where the Selectmen and Finance Board members ask questions of the individual departments (including the BOE and RHAM) so that they can formulate the best budget for the town.
The most appropriate time for you to ask questions and voice your concerns or support is at the April 13 Public Hearing.
That is a Tuesday, and will be held at the Douglas Library beginning at 7:30 p.m. Immediately following this April 13th public hearing, the Board of Finance will meet and set the final proposed budget that will be taken to taxpayers at the Tuesday, May 4th referendum.
In the interim, you can send emails to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Your emails will be automatically forwarded to three Boards and all members of those boards: the Board of Selectmen, the Board of Finance and the Board of Education. You do not need to send separate emails to these boards; you can send just one to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and all members will receive them.
We had earlier been told that This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it went only to the Selectmen, and that separate emails had to be sent to the Board of Finance members at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . That information has changed. If you send to both addresses, it results in multiple copies of the same emails being sent to members.
Based on this new information, we ask that you send your emails only to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to avoid flooding the email accounts of our elected officials. And they ARE listening!
Finally, we are asking that everyone continue their civil debate. From the meetings we’ve attended, there has been civil debate and respect shown by those who are questioning certain aspects of the budget. It’s tough when there’s not a level playing field, but we need to set the bar high as a model of taxpayers get their message across, even when some don’t always abide by the rules.