Political Fallout and Falsehoods by The NBTC

As many of you already have heard, Mayor Stewart has elected to utilize his line item veto on the 2010-2011 budget. You can view a pdf of the entire veto letter here. In his veto message Mayor Stewart called members of the Common Council to task for acting in a reckless and irresponsible manner. In a move that the Mayor called “grandstanding” the Democrats attempted to increase funding to the Board of Education by $1.5 million. When it came time to balance their budget the Democrats elected to do so by artificially raising projections for tax revenues beyond a realistic level. When that was not able to balance their budget they also sought to increase the projected amount the city would receive from the sale of property.

To add insult to injury the Democrats on the council offered no explanation for their inflated figures. They acted as if they could just claim the city would be able to generate the funds to fuel their fantasy budget. This is a slap to the face of the finance department, the Board of Finance and Taxation, the mayor, and to the taxpayers as a whole. It is bad enough when politicians elect to tax and spend without restraint, it is even worse when they choose to completely abandon reality.

Now Majority Leader Sherwood is threatening to sue the Mayor for acting like a responsible adult and refusing to allow such a sham of a budget to be passed. It is time for the citizens of New Britain to call upon our elected officials to move beyond these childish games. We cannot afford the reckless behavior of Alderman Sherwood and his cohorts to continue unchecked. Place a call to your Aldermen and Alderwomen, let them know exactly how you feel about them playing games with your tax dollars. Write to the editor of the Herald and the New Britain City Journal and insist that the deception ceases. It is time all our political leaders show the fiscal responsibility of our Mayor.