To the editor:

So I read that the court ruled against the second petition for the Financial Town Referendum and it will not appear on the ballot. There will be an election May 20 and people should go to show support for the budget committee. No tricks this year, like take away trash pickup — what were they thinking? My blood pressure won't jump this year when I get my tax bill.

Second issue, revenue. We will be seeing some new revenue from development in the industrial park, and the casino in the coming years. If we are smart and control spending, we can keep tax increases low. We will also have the resources to fix our aging town.

The revenue from the casino is a guaranteed $3 million, and it could exceed that. The $3 million can be put right in the general fund along with taxes and fees collected. That's a hard number you can count on annually. Any extra revenue over $3 million is unpredictable and should not be part of expected revenue. The FTR should be the method used to spend or save it , We need the purse strings to be controlled by the people, not the politicians  Creating a special fund for use by the council doesn't sit well with reason, if you know what I mean.

Keep your hands off our revenue, no slush funds. We were told the casino would bring tax relief, remember?

Joe Sousa

Tiverton