It’s a good thing that I have a calculator because I sure am going to need it if Tiverton decides in November to replace the Financial Town Meeting with the FTR.
Some people like it because they believe the line that it will only take 10 minutes to vote. Have these people thought about what a ballot might look like? It would be a ballot with an unlimited number of budget questions (maybe one, maybe 50) each question containing five very big dollar amounts — all at least six figures.
If you assume that most voters won’t just throw darts at the ballot, the first step will be to compare the budget questions. Let’s see ... get out my calculator ... the school budget in question #1 is $25,623 less than question #3 but $51,113 more than question #2 so I guess I’ll go with #2 ... but ... the municipal budget in question #1 is $73,342 more than question #2 ... but ... the tax levy in question #3 is $21,976 less than ... you get the drift.
How am I supposed to figure this out in 10 minutes. And this is only three questions. What happens when there are ten or 50? One councilor actually said that 1,000 budgets on the ballot would be a good thing.
Never mind that the ballot won’t tell you why a budget is higher or lower than another. Nor will it say if the budget is higher or lower than the prior year. If you don’t want to throw darts, you’ll just have to do substantial research before you vote. Or, just believe those attractive cards you’ll get in the mail or the pleasant robo-calls.
This council actually believes the FTR would be a good thing and be better than the Financial Town Meeting. I think it would be a completely irresponsible way to determine the town’s budget and totally unfair to voters.
I will be voting no to the FTR. I hope you do too!
Anne Ferreira
Tiverton, RI
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