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| Students' activism is refreshing, but it also exposes charter flaw. |
| Some high school students in Branford have decided to become active in town politics. This is refreshing. Unfortunately, they got to the arena late, and in the guise of a narrowly focused special interest group with a costly agenda. The healthy $1.5 million growth in next year's approved education budget, according to the students, is too miserly. The students, fearing some teachers and courses were doomed, jumped into political waters. That's encouraging in an age group notorious for civic apathy. And they adopted a mainstream attack, using petition and referendum as their weapons. Their neophyte status is apparent, though. They have petitioned to strip $140,000 from the Fire Department, via a townwide referendum that will cost about $10,000. They imagine the $140,000 — if the question passes — will then be reallocated to the schools, though that is hardly a sure bet. The kids' referendum, set for Friday, is a bad idea. The town's fire companies are volunteer, with the exception of a handful of career firefighters at headquarters. The $140,000 targeted is designated to go toward a new fire truck. The attempt to swipe it from the volunteers is bound to be explosively unpopular, and cause rancor among supporters of the firefighters and of the schools. Strike one. The expense of a special referendum — not to mention the inconvenience for voters — over such a relatively meager amount of money in such a large budget is sure to rile many taxpayers who already face substantial tax increases — largely because of expanding school expenditures. Strike two. Referendums are rare in Branford, and this ill-conceived attack on a fair budget reached after hundreds of hours of deliberations by folks with long histories of dedication to civic affairs should be soundly thrashed. Instead of this costly last-ditch gambit, which is going to disrupt mailing of tax bills and other town functions, these activist students should have shown earlier interest in the budget, lobbying at the appropriate times — meaning months ago. To force the vote, the students needed to sign up 5 percent of all Branford voters, or 3 percent of the voters in each of the town's five districts. Their successful petition had just 781 valid names out of almost 17,500 eligible. Branford can learn from the student uprising: It should amend its charter. A few hundred signatures is far too low a threshold to gum up government and force taxpayers to pay for a potentially unlimited torrent of $10,000 referendums over narrow, special-interest issues. |
| İNew Haven Register 2000 |