As illustration of the central point in Tom’s letter to the editor about Tiverton Tax Assessor David Robert’s inaccurate political attack on TCC, consider another letter to the editor, this one by School Committee Chairman Jan Bergandy (emphasis added):
I would like to take this opportunity to clarify what impact the School Department’s proposed 2010-11 budget of $25,620,772 has on the local taxes. A sum of $20,979, 030 would be funded from local taxation with the remaining $4,641,742 being comprised of estimated general state operational aid. The School Department’s budget request is in compliance with R.I.G.L. 16-2-21(d) which requires each community to limit its increase to 104.5% (tax cap). In order to calculate this amount you need to multiply the municipal funds appropriated for fiscal year 2010 $20,075,627 X 104.5% = $20,979,030.
If you check pages 4, 6, or 8 of the current financial town meeting docket — or any official document showing last year’s school appropriation — you’ll see that the actual municipal funds appropriated for the school department, last year, were $20,047,960. What Bergandy chooses not to explain is that the difference between his number and the actual number results from a slight decrease in state and federal general aid. (“Restricted” aid — which merely frees up non-restricted money for other things — went way up, to the tune of $1.2 million or so.)
The number of the increase in Bergandy’s version of the local appropriation is small, in this case, but it illustrates Tom’s point: If the amendments proposed by Deborah Pallasch or Jan Bergandy should be passed, our appropriation from local funds will increase, after the vote, by whatever amount state and federal aid decreases.
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