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ARE WE EVER GOING TO VOTE ON THE
MUNICIPAL BUDGET?
In November of 2011, the Town
Council added a Referendum Question to the November ballot with the
understanding that the council would abide by the wishes of the people. The question was “did the people want to vote
on the Municipal Budget by departments”, or words to that effect. The
results were over 2,000 voters voted YES and only a little over 500 voted
NO. It is now 2014 and the
people cannot vote on the Municipal budget by departments.
Previous Town Councils had a habit of not
doing what they say and as a result the people have lost faith in our Town
Council form of government. In order to preserve the Municipal budget, previous
councilors like Mike Bowie and Fern LaRochelle have been placed on the Finance
Committee. The other night at a town council
meeting, the people were forced to listen to Mrs. Morgan- Alexander, Chairman
of the Finance Committee and Fern LaRochelle tell them how hard they worked on
the Municipal budget. As a result of this hard work, the
Police Department was increased by $78,268.00 and Public Works was increased by
$235,190.00. I do not have to
repeat the excessive spending in the Police Department and the majority of the
Public Works increase was for paving as I understand it.
This supports why the people
need to vote on the Municipal budget. There is no
reason in the world why Lisbon’s Police Department should cost this community
$1,300,000.00 plus. There
is no reason why Lisbon should maintain a Communication Center (Dispatch) when
the county has an excellent Dispatch Center. Every second wasted
in an emergency puts lives at risk and having to relay 911 calls does just
that.
Chief Brooks does no care if he puts our lives at risk as long as
he can maintain his empire at the expense of the taxpayers.
The sole purpose of the
Finance Committee is to provide support for the Municipal budget presented by
the Town Council. This community needs Finance Committee members who are trying to do
what is right for the community and not protect Chief Brooks’ budget. This is the exact reason the people want to vote on the
Municipal budget because then and only then will Municipal budget be a budget
by the people. Remember
the Advisory Board was made up of elected officials but when they did not
support the Municipal budget they were replaced by appointed members whom 5 out
of 7 are previous councilors. Go figure!
In order to restore integrity and get out of the
current financial situation and back on track, the people are going to have to
vote on the Municipal budget. The last four years, the people have suffered
an unnecessary tax increase. The creed
of certain town employees coupled with councilors who have no spine have
resulted in a situation in which taxpayers can no longer afford to reside in
our community. We are losing too many
good neighbors and friends because of outrageous Municipal budgets.
It is imperative that this town council do
what is right and change the Charter to allow the people to vote on the
Municipal budget by departments next June. The people
asked for this almost three years ago.
There is time now to do this if they want; look how fast it took them to
get a Charter change to limit million dollars bonds only on the November
ballot.
Now is the time to
allow the people to vote on the Municipal Budget.
Larry Fillmore
Editor's Note: This may take some thinking, but it is YOUR reality.
Editor's Note: This may take some thinking, but it is YOUR reality.
5 comments:
Mr Filmore - I have heard this argument several times over the last few years and each time the question on the ballot in 2011 is referred to as "The voters approved an amendment to the charter". This simply was NOT the case. the wording of the question, which can be easily found by the most simplistic computer users, was
"Do the voters of the Town of Lisbon wish to vote on an amendment to the Town Charter that, if enacted, would require voter approval at a referendum election for each annual Municipal Budget?"
So, with a rudimentary understanding of the English language, one can quickly realize that this was a vote to approve a vote. There is a strong likelihood that many of those who voted yes, myself included, were looking forward to the opportunity to vote NO the second time to be clear that we trusted our town council to build the budget. You have good intentions, but please stop this misinterpretation of the facts, it doesn't help your credibility at all.
All Of Lisbons problems boil down to one thing, and that is the councilors are all under chief Brooks desk servicing his every wish. Until we get rid of him we will not solve our problems
Enough with the stupid stolen pictures and repetitious rantings of a looser. YOU lost we are going to have a new Gym and Track and that is that. Dont be a spoiled looser. And by the way your banner about Lisbon being the third highest taxed town in Androscoggin is incorrect. Just another piece of misinformation by you and your bunch. GET OVER IT
I agree with anonymous and the unconcerned intelligent citizen-there are more of us
I fully agree with anonymous and Unconcerned Intelligent Citizen-there are many more of us
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