Getting a dose of fiscal medicine

Winchester residents are finally getting a dose of needed medicine with the hiring of a nonpartisan outsider to serve as interim finance director here. Jane Wall, the accountant who is combing through financial records at Town Hall in the wake of allegations of missing funds and the firing of former director Henry Centrella, has concluded that Winsted is so cash-strapped that a two-mill increase in the tax rate is necessary to get the town back on its feet.Why does this idea sound so familiar? Oh yes, it was Town Manager Dale Martin who presented a budget last year that called for increasing the town’s fund balance and investing in infrastructure, which was vehemently opposed by a vocal minority and ultimately defeated by Winchester residents who were whipped into a fury by their political leaders.After repeated calls for tax decreases and zero budgets, what Winchester has been left with is the shell of an operating budget. When Martin created his first proposed budget of the year in 2012, he took that fact into account. His decisions to increase the fund balance, add money for road repairs and adequately fund the Department of Public Works were all rejected by voters, who were led by so-called taxpayer representatives and local Republican malcontents who wish to stall progress for political gain. Several votes later the town passed another budget with a zero increase, meaning there would be no contribution of funds into Winchester’s anemic fund balance and the town’s credit rating would continue to sink. In an age in which investments in schools and infrastructure are sorely needed to keep the town alive, residents were convinced by the malcontents that their personal tax bills were more important than the overall good of the town.While all of the political budget bickering was going on, members of the Board of Selectmen — who serve as the town’s finance board — have seemed to be in the dark about the town’s finances, considering the allegation that more than $100,000 in funds disappeared under their noses, and tens of thousands of dollars in “rainy day” funds also seemed to vanish and reappear under the previous, Republican-led Board of Selectmen’s noses. When members of the opposing party tried to rectify the situation by calling for more revenue, they were met with bitter resistance.The time has come for Winsted to put money into its fund balance and to restore funding to infrastructure needs. It’s too bad that it takes someone from outside of town to deliver this obvious message to taxpayers, who may or may not take heed.