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Vote with the Facts

Year in and year out, Clinton is the only shoreline town with a vocal “No” group that advocates for the failure of every budget, every year. They give you different reasons from year to year regarding why you need to vote down the budgets. One year they even told you it was because the town had a budget surplus the previous year, as if it were a bad thing to have not spent all that was budgeted, and to be able to place those funds back in the following year’s budget as revenue.

This year some “No” voices tell you Clinton should fund its schools at the minimum required by law. (Imagine how that would sit with new young families, who are the lifeblood of any community, as they consider coming to Clinton.) Other “No” voices are unhappy that with the closure of Pierson, they don’t see all of the previous Pierson funding removed from the budget, perhaps unwilling to acknowledge that the 4th and 5th grade students and teachers still exist, they’ve just moved to other locations.

Year in and year out, the increases to our town and education budgets are somewhere between average and low compared with other shoreline towns, and our per-pupil costs are among the lowest. Also, any realtor will tell you that if you were to pick up your Clinton house, and place it down on a similar property and location in another shoreline town, your taxes in that town would be the same if not higher. Context matters.

Any realtor group in the country will also tell you that strong school systems drive strong property values. I encourage your readers to vote with the facts, and support the town and education budgets at the polls on May 8.

Maria Moran

Clinton