‘Why We Voted No’

Our vote was not an expression of lack of confidence in our town employees, but just the opposite.   For three years, they have been forced to do more with less, and we share their frustration.  A budget process that shaves $40,000 from an already lean operating budget like road repair simply makes their jobs harder.   Worse, it does nothing to address the fundamental structural problems that are driving our budgets and taxes higher and higher.

We need to address the structural problems.  This budget does not do it.

One problem is the cost of pensions and other retiree benefits.  As we have said for three years, pension reform should have been part of the budget process, because pension costs are the single biggest driver of budget and tax increases.   The town recently won a favorable award after a lengthy arbitration involving one union pension, and that will begin to address our long term pension expense.  This proves that we can do something now about out of control benefits costs.  There are other areas where pension reform could be implemented immediately.  This budget does not do it.

In addition, there are efficiencies that can be achieved immediately in town government through consolidation of functions.  Consolidation offers opportunities for both cost savings and improvements in service delivery for our customers.   This budget does not contain any reorganization of staff and functions.  Unfortunately, our attempts to use our budget votes to encourage innovative solutions were met with defensiveness, and ultimately were thwarted. 

We believe that the town budget process is not only the right venue, but is the best venue, for implementing fundamental structural changes.   The town budget process is the sole mechanism which enables us to quantify, consolidate, prioritize and finally decide on changes to the way we work.  With the sole exception of the transportation system, this year’s budget process changed nothing.

Government works differently from private business.  Public sector decision making is supposed to be transparent, not behind the scenes.  The very public budget process offers our only opportunity for full discussion, debate and input before decisions are made about resource allocation.  This year, the process produced an austere budget, but created no financial head room for the investments in the future that Westport so desperately needs.  An opportunity has been missed.

If the last election was supposed to send a message to the Board of Finance, it was that Westport taxpayers wanted a change from business as usual.  We agree.  Unfortunately, this budget shows no progress toward that goal.

and Brian Stern, Members, Westport Board of Finance