The tax mill rate will increase another 3.76% next year if Berlin, Connecticut voters fail to get off their butts and vote against it. One can only presume that Berlin voters are either unaware of the proposed increases in taxes or frankly just don't care about paying more in taxes since so few of them go out and vote against them.
My wife theorizes the former cause. She suspects that many voters are oblivious to tax increases since they are escrowed in their mortgage payments, and are not registering in the voter's consciousness. Perhaps she is right.
As one recalls from previous years, merely 6% of the voters turned out to reject last year's budget; and 7% turned out the year before. How many of the voters will turn out this year? My guess is about the same, if not fewer.
Have voters become so accustomed to tax increases and feel powerless in, or perhaps sceptical of, the democratic process? Why sceptical? Did not voters reject last year's budget proposal, only to have their will ignored by our Town's leaders? Perhaps they rightfully believe that the referendum is in reality a sham, merely staged to create the impression of a democratic process.
In any event, the budget referendum is scheduled for April 30th, next Tuesday. Will Berlin voters once again sit on their butts and not exercise their right to vote on Berlin's Town Budget and participate in their democracy?
And will Berlin's Town leaders once again ignore the will of its citizens, however few, if they vote against the budget? Last year that's what the Town leaders did, saying that too few of Berlin's citizens voted against the budget, even though a majority voted against the budget. Excuse me, but what is the threshold for calling a game? And who decides that? The mayor?
"In a democracy, people get the government they deserve," and the citizens of Berlin deserve another tax increase if they cannot get off their derrieres and vote.
The Barefoot Accountant
