To the editor:

The Barrington Times has reported that at a special financial town meeting on March 16, the voters of Barrington will be asked to repeal the existing 4 percent cap on the Barrington property tax increase.  

The repeal of the tax cap is necessary to fund the debt service on middle school construction bonds up to $64.8 million as approved in November. 

Special FTM is set for March 16.

Before voting on the tax cap repeal, the voters need to know if there will be any cap and what it will be. Using the numbers reported by the Times, the maximum annual debt service cost to the Town would be about $3 million which is about a 5 percent increase in property tax. In recent years, the increase for normal operating expenses has been under 2 percent. This would suggest that the revised cap on property tax increase should be less than 7 percent.

Giving the town a "blank check" seems fiscally irresponsible. The voters should be allowed to vote on a revised cap that will reasonably accommodate funding of both the middle school project and normal town operations.

Peter Clifford

Barrington