Slashing services the only option

The choice that our town leaders face is clear: they can either slash education more deeply or they can dump long-established services that town residents value.
Today’s story in The Hartford Courant devotes too much space to debunking the misleading numbers used by the West Hartford Taxpayers Association — old news, guys! — and not enough to [...]

Huge tag sale for a good cause

The Tabor House-AIDS Project Hartford HUGE  Tag Sale date has been set for July 13 4-8 pm  and 14th 8-1pm, at the Convent of the Sisters of St. Joseph on Park Rd in W Hartford. Last year the event raised 10k to benefit men and women with HIV/AIDS who would otherwise be homeless.
It’s a good cause. If you [...]

Put the elms back in Elmwood

I know the town doesn’t have any money. I know people want to spend, well, nothing.
But here’s a program that we can still somehow do together: Put the elms back in Elmwood.
Since Dutch Elm Disease wiped out 100 million American Elm trees during the 20th century, including most of the tree-lined streets in our cities, the trees [...]

Ouch. What’s next?

While I know there were many people who voted against the budget because they wanted more money for education, there’s no sense arguing that a majority of those who voted are not looking for more cuts. Obviously, given the margin, there’s no other way to analyze what happened.
But I still believe a large majority in [...]

Yes or no? The referendum finale

For me, it’s yes.
But let’s see how it goes Tuesday. Reports from the polls are welcome.

Lieberman goes on a rant

“What we need is to strike over the border into Iran to bomb the training camps that the Iranian government has established to train insurgents who are fighting American troops in Iraq. The government of Iran bears responsibility for training terrorists who are killing our soldiers day in and day out as our military struggles [...]

Tax revolt or just revolting? A yes vote is key.

If you want kids to sit in more crowded classrooms, vote no.
If you want to gut our gifted and talented program, vote no.
If you want to see kindergarten hours cut in half, vote no.
If you want to see services slashed and programs pared, vote no.
But if you want to see the traditional commitment to good [...]

Resident pleads for ‘Yes’ vote

This email & an addendum came in to me today. They seem worth sharing: 
I doubt there is anyone left who is unaware of this, but we are going
to referendum on Tuesday to support or send back the town budget.
Whatever your opinion, you should make it to the polls, so that we
really know what the majority [...]

Strong opinions, yes; slurs and hate, no

Please, folks, if this place doesn’t treat those who disagree with a reasonable amount of respect — or at least without viciousness and name-calling — I’ll  either stop doing it or change the format so it’s not so wide open. I’d really like to avoid that.
So from now on, if a comment includes personal slurs [...]

Vote yes on the budget

Look, I’m disgusted with the cuts in education that have already been made, as are many others. But at this point, what’s done is done. Maybe next year we can push for more.
This year, though, we have to choose whether to support a flawed budget or vote it down. If it gets knocked down, it [...]