Readers say Voter disenfranchisement , Not Apathy cause low Voter turn out for School budget
After all didn’t the Village Council disenfranchise the voters last time when the council approved a school budget that was defeated?
What is the point of voting if the village oligarchy can arbitrarily overrule the will of the people?
With two uncontested seats and a budget under the cap. Even if the budget were voted down it would have been passed by the council. The increase was relatively small.
The School budget was at the cap. it was 2% and was going to pass. At that rate, even if it were voted down the council would have passed it anyway. There really was nothing to vote for or against.
Voting the school budget down wouldn’t do anything. i was all happy when we voted it down a couple of years ago, and then the f’n council voted to take the 100k off that they already knew was coming in lower anyway, so they really didn’t cut anything.
I voted no the last time it did not passed (and I have kids in school BTW) and then it was passed by the council with a token deduction. I decided this year that I have better things to do with my time since there were no contested seats. Why vote no on spending when it accomplishes nothing.
Why bother to vote? The last time it was turned down the ‘then’ council members pretended to knock $100,000 off of a 90,000,000 budget.
Make it binding. No means no. ALSO, do as most towns do. Have the budget voted on in NOVEMBER
what’s the point?????
According to the BOE, nothing can be cut. i call B.S. on that.
I would say that at my job if i knew i could get away with it. but that’s not how normal institutions operate. the education system, here and at all levels, has no accountability. why else would college cost $150k+ now? jeez, we are getting bankrupted by the BOE who imply we need to keep paying insane taxes to get our kids into college/succeed, and then get killed once the kids get there. Then, good luck getting a job that pays the bills….
I agree. Both open seats were going to be reoccupied by incumbents no matter what, but probably more important, people remembered that when the budget was voted down, it made no difference. Many were frustrated and angry by that. Yes, it is the previous council’s fault that people did not vote the current school budget down in droves. Plenty did (including me). It did not succeed by that much, considering that for decades the school budget was approved by almost everybody without question. The vote should make more of a difference.