It’s budget season again. Sadly, what that means as of late is that we all have to endure watching some of the people who ran the town into the ground try to distract you from that fact by demagoguing concerned citizens who are just tying to stop the bleeding and find common ground going forward. Much progress has been made with people of differing perspectives coming together for honest discourse, but unfortunately a few outliers remain.
Exhibit A: Mike Burk. On his watch, he cheerleaded for skyrocketing tax increases and a stolen FTM in 2008. The pending tax appeal in Superior Court does not simply involve “tax issues” but happened largely because of his open defiance of a state law protecting taxpayers and his tolerating abuse of school resources and using children as tools in doing so. He manipulates the truth about the school budget, conveniently omitting that the school department received nearly one million dollars in stimulus funds and ended last year with surplus money. He smears TCC as anti-education even as it was Mike Burk who personally battled every TCC effort to study merit pay to reward our best teachers and improve test scores which were so dismal when he was on the School Committee. Worst of all, Mr. Burk distorts the Town Charter when in fact that Budget Committee is the only official body that must explicitly consider residents’ ability to afford taxes as part of its sworn duties. Instead, and consistent with his demonstrated efforts to thwart fair FTM outcomes in the past, Mr. Burk somehow argues that exercising your fundamental right to vote is a snub to the Charter.
Are you out of work? Struggling to pay your bills? Worried about losing your home? According to Mike Burk, you must be part of a small “special interest group” that cares nothing for schools or good government. Yet Tiverton has had the second highest property tax increases in the state over the last five years, and here comes Mike Burk and the actual special interest groups looking for another twelve percent tax this year.
Ask yourself: Who led this town before the TCC formed and started advocating for good government and fiscal responsibility? Why are a few hyperpartisans so eager to smear concerned citizens and riddle the town with deliberate falsehoods? The best path forward is to become as informed as you can and challenge assumptions. More personally, anyone interested in honest discussion is encouraged to call me at (401) 525-0469. Thank you.
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