Many reasons for ‘no’ on charter question

It’s rare for Democratic and Republican leaders to agree on anything. They do on the charter question in Groton. They’ll be voting “no” to the new charter for Groton. Previous Republican mayors (O’Beirne, Flax, Watson, Dauphinais) and current and former Democratic mayors (Granatosky, Schmidt) recommend voting “no.” Why?

For the same reasons the Republican Town Council voted “no” in the end. The new charter is extreme, badly written, leaves too many questions unanswered causing confusion, requires costly budget referendums every year, with no limit to the number; costs could exceed $100,000. Absurdly, Groton would become the only town in Connecticut with a Board of Finance with no power.

Most towns (60 percent) in Connecticut don’t have budget referendums. When they do, there’s usually a limit to how many. They only happen when taxes are increasing too much, and enough voters must participate. Reasonable limitations. Not what Groton will have if this charter passes.

Referendums are popular in the continual push for lower taxes. However, they generally result in lower quality of public services (schools, police, and libraries, senior services, recreation programs, street maintenance, snow plowing).

These are some of the many reasons to vote “no” on question 3. Natalie Billing Mystic