Here again it is budget voting time and again they (the Tiverton Town Council and their cohorts) are propagandizing about what will be lost if we vote for Budget #2.

Let me put things in perspective here. When I was on the budget committee my second year, 2013, I took a lot of time going through the minutes of the town council to track transfers.  A transfer is simply this: All through the year, but particularly in the last few months before the fiscal end of the year (July), the town council moves money around from one account to the other. Maybe anyone who is not involved in politics does not know that any money in an account (of course there are exceptions) that is not used goes to the General Fund.

They transfer money this time of year so there will not be as much money in the General Fund. They spend any and all the money they can from the budget every year. What I found in going through the transfers was that there was a total amount of approximately $330,000 — yes, 330 thousand dollars — that year that was transferred from one account to the other.

Some of these accounts were for the fire department, police department, where they have union contracts — supposedly we can’t touch that money.  Also, why do they always say they need a planner? For years we had none and the town survived. We had a few and we were also always paying as well for outside consultants.  That is another piece of propaganda we always hear.

Add on to that the fact that we just had another townwide revaluation. I know the tax assessment for our house went up by 20 percent. So, even if we vote for Budget #2, we will still be paying more because of the higher assessments, thus giving them more money to squander, I suspect.

So don’t believe them when they tell you the seniors will have no services because even at Budget #2 there is padding in the budget, to be sure.  Vote Budget #2.

Madeline O’Dell

Tiverton

Ms. O’Dell is a former budget committee member, 2012-2016.