REJECT THE FTR: DON'T GIVE YOUR RIGHTS AWAY

The real motive of those who want the proposed Financial Town Referendum (FTR) has finally been exposed. It is not about greater participation or about voter intimidation or about private votes or anything else. It is about one thing and one thing only- their taxes.

Remember that the same group that is proposing this FTR over the years has proposed and supported cutting over $3 million dollars to our schools, cuts that could only be made up by actions including closing an elementary school and eliminating all extracurricular activities. But it would have cut taxes.

Remember that the same group that is proposing this FTR proposed cutting Tiverton's membership in the League of Cities and Towns and in the Chamber of Commerce, cutting the Town Planner position to half-time, and eliminating most of the funding to our Economic Develop Commission. We should be sending out a message that Tiverton is forward-thinking and attuned to the needs of the business community, but this kind of penny-wise but pound-foolish cost-cutting sent a clear message to the business community that we really aren't interested in being a business-friendly community. But it would have cut taxes.

Remember that the same group that is proposing this FTR proposed cutting Visiting Nurses Services, Newport County Mental Health, and Newport County Women’s Resources as well as the Samaritans. To cut funding to organizations that provide essential services to people who otherwise lack them, would mean that some of our community would be unable to continue to live in town rather than an institution or be forced to live a life whose quality would be less than dignified. But it would have cut taxes.

Remember that the rise in the tax rate was prompted primarily by debt service on voter-approved bonds and by loss of state revenue, not by extravagant spending by the schools and town.

If your only goal is to keep taxes low at all costs and you don't care about the long-term ramifications of such a strategy, then vote for this FTR. But, be careful what you wish for – it may be your trash collection, the fire or police department or whatever town service you like and use that they cut next. And you will have given up your rights to let them do it.

But, if you want to be the one that gets to decide whether the needs of the community are met, then keep your rights. Don’t turn them over to the minority or to a two council member veto. Vote NO on question #2 on November 8th.

Jim Arruda
Tiverton