No doubt readers will be bombarded with blamethrowing churning in the wake of Tiverton’s Financial Town Meeting this past Saturday, where a potential tax increase of over 22 percent was presented by supporters of the Schools and the School Committee. We hope this effort to raise Tiverton’s taxes will be the wakeup call that Tiverton citizens need to address our budget difficulties. I encourage you to watch the FTM video on Cable TV channel 18 and judge this fiasco for yourself. Read the letters to the editor and make up your own mind. As controversy has dogged this event the past few years, it also makes sense to see how awful this FTM was. There is a root cause to of all this controversy and it is not pretty.
A small group of incumbents have decades of experience running Tiverton’s government and they have done so for decades. This year is no different. The Town Council again successfully avoided having to take responsibility for exceeding the State Mandated Tax Cap this year, while actively encouraging others to bring forward proposals to raise your taxes into the stratosphere. They have taken no vote to do so. Louise Durfee has explained that voters should always be able to decide any tax rate at the FTM, and THEN the Town gets permission to exceed the Tax Cap when the Town Administrator fills out the proper form – that’s it. When the second 2010 FTM opens Saturday, the first topic of discussion is Deb Pallach’s amendment which will place an increase of 22% to Tiverton’s 2010 tax liability. This is no surprise to those who exposed their hand at last Saturday’s FTM, as they have been planning this for months. They believe they deserve a big payoff and overburdened taxpayers are of little concern. They have support to do this from a majority of the Town Council. Think of what this means to you.
The good news is the vote did not occur last Saturday. The bad news is if you don’t attend this coming Saturday, enormous new tax increases will become law. TCC needs your help to fight this out of control Tax Machine; we cannot do it without you.
Dave Nelson
President Tiverton Citizens for Change
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