MANCHESTER DEMOCRATS REACT TO ADOPTED BUDGET

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MANCHESTER DEMOCRATS REACT TO ADOPTED BUDGET

TAX LEVY INCREASE MORE THAN THE 3% CLAIMED BY GOP,
MORE THAN DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY’S FY 2007/08 BUDGET

Manchester Democrats reacted strongly this week to the adopted FY 2008/09 Republican budget that was adopted Tuesday evening, pointing out that it results in a 4.4% increase in the tax levy and not a 3% tax increase as Republican Mayor Lou Spadaccini claimed in his Budget Address.

“The Republicans have manipulated how tax increases are calculated and misled the public,” said Democratic Town Chair Michael Pohl. “This is an attempt at avoiding accountability for their budget's shortcomings. Instead of taking responsibility for breaking their so-called Covenant with Manchester Taxpayers, Republican Directors actually raised taxes by 4.4% and cut services. The Republicans have chosen to mislead taxpayers with fuzzy math.”

The customary practice for calculating the increase in taxes is to take the overall tax levy for the current year, divide by the overall tax levy for the prior year, arriving at the percentage increase. Performing that calculation for this Republican budget, (dividing the tax levy for the FY 08-09 year ($109,354,126) by the tax levy for the FY-07-08 year ($104,749,906)) results in an increase of 4.4%. That is the true tax increase for this budget. The “3%” figure cited by Mayor Spadaccini in his budget address apparently excludes new revenues from grand list growth or tax appeals which, said Pohl, “is an unorthodox way of calculating a tax increase and is intellectually dishonest, not to mention in excess of the cost of living and rate of inflation.”

Using the customary method of calculation, the tax levy increase in last year's adopted FY 2007/08 Democratic budget was only 2.76% from the FY2006/07 adopted budget. Under the Republican calculations used this year to get to the “3%” figure, that actual 2.76% increase in FY2007/08 would likely have been somewhere around 1%. “Therefore,” said Pohl, “the Democratic controlled Board of Directors in 2007 actually kept tax increases lower than the Republican controlled Board of Directors did in 2008. This is striking considering all of the promises we heard and continue to hear from Republicans about lowering taxes.”

“In addition,” said Pohl, “the adopted budget made many of the unwise and fiscally irresponsible budget adjustments that Manchester Democrats had feared in releasing the “Watch List” last week, including, making cuts in education that will result in the cutting of teachers and underfunding the reopening of Bennet, refusing to adequately fund our community’s public safety needs such as security at town facilities and functions and basic maintenance of police vehicles, and cutting the necessary funding to the non-profit community organizations that help our residents and ultimately save taxpayers money.”

“Most disturbing,” said Pohl, “was the manner in which the budget process was conducted - the Republican majority promised to be more ‘accountable’ and listen to the taxpayers yet they denied the public an opportunity to learn more about town programs and spending and to offer their input when they rejected the Democratic proposal to televise the Budget workshops, refused to meet with the Democratic caucus on the Board of Directors in a joint deliberation session, refused to release any ‘performance based budgeting’ reports as they had promised, and refused to release their proposed budget figures until 24 hours prior to budget adoption meeting.”

Pohl said the Town Committee and the Democratic Directors will continue to put the needs of Manchester’s residents first as they monitor the implementation of the adopted budget and its effect on the quality of life in Manchester.

MANCHESTER DEMOCRATS MEET TO DISCUSS BUDGET

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- April 28, 2008

MANCHESTER DEMOCRATS MEET TO DISCUSS BUDGET PRIORITIES;
SUBCOMMITTEE RELEASES “WATCH LIST”

The Manchester Democratic Town Committee will meet at Waddell School on Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 7:00 PM to discuss their priorities for the Town Manchester’s FY 2008-2009 Budget. This follows a meeting of the DTC’s Policy and Action Subcommittee where subcommittee members had the opportunity to meet with Democratic Directors and discuss possible scenarios for the Budget and develop a Watch List to monitor important programs and departments in the Town government that may be targeted for dramatic budget cuts.

“The Policy and Action Subcommittee had a very productive meeting and wants to highlight several points to the full Town Committee,” said Democratic Town Chairman Michael Pohl. “Most importantly, we are concerned that the responsible stewardship of the Town and the progress made by the Democrats over the past 16 years is threatened by drastic and dangerous cuts that may be coming for the programs and departments in Town government which reflect the basic values that we as Democrats hold and which we believe are also reflective of the values of our community as a whole.”

The Subcommittee identified the following Watch List and described the possible affect of budget cuts in those areas that are priorities for Democrats:

· Education - There is no more important service for protecting the quality of life and our property values in Manchester than providing a quality education. If there are further cuts in the Board of Education’s budget, we can expect to see “non-mandatory” programs like gifted and talented education, freshman or junior varsity sports and other enrichment programs cut back or eliminated completely. We also fully expect reductions in staff including full-time and part-time teachers and para-professionals under the Republican budget. Finally, we expect that the re-opening of the Bennet 6th Grade Academy - a $40 million dollar investment by the taxpayers - will be underfunded by nearly $1 million.

· Youth Services/Recreation - We are concerned that the Republican majority will cut or refuse to adequately fund youth programs that have been developed under Democratic leadership. The funds allocated for the reopening of the East Side Rec and the proposed plan for a "Bennet Leisure Center" is one example of where we expect such services will be woefully underfunded or not funded in this budget. Every cut to youth programming is a cut that threatens public safety in our community.

· Public Safety - We are concerned that the Republican majority will turn the clock back on the advances made under Democratic leadership towards putting more uniformed officers on the street and decrease staffing at the Police Department, threatening the safety of our neighborhoods. Specifically, we believe they will refuse to fund important staff positions such as increased security at the library and a student resource officer at the new Bennet 6th Grade academy.

· Community Agencies - The Republican majority has expressed a desire to cut back on assistance to community non-profit agencies that the Town has traditionally supported including organizations like MACC and PAL which provide vital services to the our neediest residents and youth, and they have even refused to honor their supposed desire to at least keep increases to town services in line with the rising cost of living.

· Infrastructure - We anticipate that the Republican majority will cut within the Public Works budget, freeze additional positions, and borrow from reserve fund balances, all of which threaten the maintenance of our existing infrastructure including roads, bridges and town facilities.

“If the Republicans do make the cuts identified on the watch list to any significant extent” said Pohl, “we see it not only as endangering our Town, but also as an egregious violation of the promises they made in their ‘Covenant with Manchester Taxpayers’. The Republicans specifically promised to cut taxes and to do so without cutting services. From what we have seen, we believe it is likely that they will violate both of these promises. Furthermore, they promised to adhere to a system of ‘performance based budgeting’, to assess the community’s need or desire for specific programs and they have not made any attempts to do that in this year’s budget and have made their determinations on where to cut the budget without any kinds of “performance measures” and without public input. In addition, the Republican majority denied the public an opportunity to learn more about town programs and spending and to offer their input when they rejected the Democratic proposal to televise the Budget workshops and they refused to meet with the Democratic caucus on the Board of Directors in a joint deliberation session.”

On the other hand, said Pohl, beginning in November, the Democrats have identified their own priorities for the budget and have brought forth productive and important ideas, including through several resolutions presented before the Board of Directors such as:

· Support for full implementation of the town staff’s recent proposal for the so-called “Bennet Leisure Center” at the new East Side Rec
· Fund All Day Kindergarten at all 10 elementary schools
· Increase funding for Community Service Agencies to keep pace with inflation
· Increase funding for additional Public Safety Officers at places like Mary Cheney Library
· Increase funding for additional school crossing guards at Illing Middle School

Most importantly, said Pohl, the Democrat Directors have a plan to provide funding for these important initiatives while still decreasing overall spending under the Manager’s proposed budget. Nevertheless, the Directors expect that these concepts will be rejected outright by the Republican majority.

Democratic Directors Announce February Resolutions

The Democratic Directors recently released their February resolutions, which will be heard and considered by the entire Board of Directors later next month. There are four (4) resolutions in total; addressing the Bennet Leisure Center, hiring a library consultant, filming and broadcasting the Directors' budget workshops and the institution of all-day kindergarten at all 10 elementary schools.

The Bennet Leisure Center resolution calls for the full implementation of the town's recent proposal for after-school and weekend programing once the facility comes back on line later this fall. It is a comprehensive plan that will provide a variety of activities to provide creative outlets for Manchester's youth.

During the last election, the Democratic candidates for the Board of Directors made Mary Cheney Library a chief issue in that the demand for - and success of - the programs offered has forced town staff to consider other space alternatives simply due to the existing size limitations of the structure. The Democratic Directors' resolutions calls for the town to release an RFP (request for proposal) or RFQ (request for quotation) to hire a consultant to study future space needs and whether the existing facility is capable of supporting same.

As past budget workshops have not been documented to any great extent, the Democratic Directors believe that transparency is critical and have thus submitted a resolution that calls for the videotaping of all workshop sessions and subsequent broadcasting on Channel 16, Silk City Television.

The most ambitious resolution in the recent set of submissions is the request to institute all-day kindergarten in all 10 elementary schools prior to the state of the '09-'10 school year. Countless studies have demonstrated that young students who attend all-day kindergarten have more advanced social skills, fully-developed independent study skills and are better prepared for academic success later in their academic careers. The resolution calls for the Board of Directors to provide "all necessary funding" to assist the Board of Education in ensuring that that this goal is accomplished.

Dems Get $200K for Spruce Street Youth Center

All of the tireless work by the Democrats has paid off! Yesterday Congress approved a massive omnibus spending bill that included a $200,000 grant for the Spruce Street Youth Center. President Bush has indicated that he will sign the bill. You can read the entire press release below.

DEMOCRATS ANNOUNCE FUNDING FOR SPRUCE STREET YOUTH CENTER

$200,000 Grant In Federal Government Omnibus Funding Bill

Today Democratic Directors Kevin Zingler, Lisa O’Neill, Dave Sheridan, John Topping and Democratic Town Committee Chairman Ted Cummings announced that a $200,000 grant for the Spruce Street Youth Center was incorporated into the congressional spending bill (H.R. 2764, Division K) that was finalized yesterday and is expected to be signed by President Bush in the coming days.

Democratic Minority Leader Zingler said "I along with my Democratic colleagues on the board await the President's signature to receive this federal grant. The funding will move us one step further towards the opening of this much needed center at firehouse on Spruce Street. The center will provide a variety of opportunities for Manchester's youth to grow socially, emotionally and intellectually. Projects like this will provide our future leaders with the tools needed to succeed. I am grateful to everyone who worked on this project,"

Director O’Neill, who served previously on the Board of Education, stated that the project will foster positive role models to support our youth in their education and other initiatives.

Director Sheridan, who participated in a 2006 National League of Cities Conference in Washington, D.C. where this project was brought to the attention of Manchester’s congressional delegation, noted “This is a project that is very important to me. A few years ago this was just an idea, now we're on the road to making it happen. Our vision was to build a place in the Spruce Street neighborhood where young children can go after school to learn and play and grow in a safe and caring environment. With this grant, we can begin to do that. There is much work ahead of us, but this is an important first step."

Director Topping followed in agreement, “I’m very proud to be a member of the Democratic caucus that worked so hard to arrange for this grant. We still have much work to do and the kids, parents and promise of the Spruce Street area will continue to be our motivation going forward. I have no doubt that the Youth Center will become one of the many gems of the downtown area.”

Town Committee Chairman Cummings expressed that the project, which wouldn’t have occurred without the many tireless efforts of the Democrats, will provide a variety of social and recreational outlets for the many residents of the Spruce Street area, including mentoring and life-skills training.

The Youth Center will be located in the former Spruce Street Firehouse and will have several computer workstations, space for recreational and youth service programs, and will house the Police Activities League, who will couple with the Youth Service Bureau and Recreation Department to provide programming. Additional programs may include health and safety programs (CPR, babysitting, etc.), tutoring, and a Youth and Senior Theater.

Republicans Can't Define Campaign Promise

The JI has a recent article regarding one of the Republican's most prized campaign promises and how they, despite their many claims that it will protect taxpayer money, don't even understand the concept.

Republicans' attempt to apply "performance-based accounting" methods to the town budget has become more convoluted than expected, as the practice's definition doesn't line up with what directors describe.

Town Manager Scott Shanley explained Tuesday that there are several terms being used interchangeably by town staff and elected officials when, in fact, they mean different things.

Despite the remainder of the article (which paints a rather rosy depiction of the Republicans' ineptitude), watching the rebroadcast of the last Board of Directors meeting clearly demonstrates that the Republican majority is far more concerned with spouting off (incorrect) rhetoric than actually improving Manchester. Coupled with their recent request that the town attorney review potential "conflicts of interest" restrictions in advance of their blight ordinance (remember: Republicans Cheri Pelletier and Mark Tweedie are landlords and are - according to recently enacted ethics guidelines -prevented from considering and voting on legislation pertaining to same), it signals that the next two years will be filled with empty promises, deception and questionable ethical practices.

Manchester Selected for Youth Initiative Program

Though no longer serving, former Director Jason Doucette's efforts are still paying dividends.

The JI is reporting that Manchester has been selected by the National League of Cities to participate in a technical program that will help in developing a written strategic plan for youth initiatives. Manchester is one of 4 nationwide communities that was selected for this "learning community initiative".

The effort started locally in July when former Democratic Director Jason E. Doucette pushed for the adoption of the NLC Platform for
Strengthening Families and Improving Outcomes for Children and Youth, which pledges to develop a plan to address youth needs and ways to assess their success.

According to town Human Services Director Mary Roche Cronin, the 4 selected communities and NLC staff will begin a series of telephone conferences in January.

This post is cross-posted at http://www.gmyd.wordpress.com/.

The Day After

Though the results were not as we would have hoped, the Democrats fought a tough battle, based on issues and on their accomplishments. Kevin Zingler, Lisa O'Neill, Dave Sheridan and John Topping will continue to work hard over the next two years to Move Manchester Forward.

Congratulations to Lou Spadacinni, Matt Peak, Cheri Pelletier, Jeff Beckman and Mark Tweedie on a well run campaign.

Many thanks go out from the candidates to all their volunteers for their countless sacrifices and endless commitment to the values of the Democratic Party. An additional showing of gratitude must be extended to Chairman Ted Cummings for his unwavering leadership throughout. I have no doubt that in two years the Democrats will once again earn the support of Manchester's residents and be returned to the majority.