To the editor

Nancy Driggs and I recently wrote about a “big union giveaway,” meaning Councilor Edwards’s push to increase fire department staffing by 33 percent in advance of the casino money arriving. Fire Chief Lloyd, whose mismanagement of his department just cost the town a $175,000 in a legal settlement over a firefighter personnel matter, set the plan in motion by applying for a grant, with strings attached, without council approval.

Now we learn that the week before the Nov. 8 casino vote, the town administrator authorized the police chief to hire and send six recruits to the police academy at a cost to Tiverton taxpayers of well over $100,000. This too happened without the council’s explicit approval as required by the Charter, leaving them in the awkward position of having to tell these young academy graduates that there is no approved money to hire them, and in fact there never was.

Councilor Lebeau, who just signed on to a Financial Town Referendum (FTR) petition (and lawsuit) to try to raise your taxes, threw the taxpayers under the bus again when he said, “We should hire them all right now.” Rather, we urge the council to stop these giveaways now before any more damage is done. Firefighters and policemen should acknowledge the reality that additional personnel in their departments will take away from monies that would otherwise be available for the existing force.

These early actions by government officials and labor unions, combined with the Casino Sub- Committee’s mission to develop “a plan for the allocation of gaming revenue from the casino,” indicate the pressure to divert casino revenue away from direct tax relief. Fortunately, the FTR enables taxpayers to hold the council’s feet to the fire on budgeting matters.

FTR voters are unlikely to approve budgets that fund these giveaways, which would force the council to clean up the financial mess it created.

Such decisions to spend are why services wind up being reduced. Knowing that taxpayers have low willingness to pay higher taxes, elected officials try to force the issue beforehand — in this case, based on a casino that has yet to be built and revenue that has yet to receive a taxpayer vote. When taxpayers balk, there’s nowhere to go but service reductions.

This tactic underscores the importance of the upcoming election to fill the Charter Review Commission (CRC). This CRC will recommend whether your FTR should be protected or eliminated, and whether the casino money is directed toward tax relief or new spending through side accounts not subject to FTR- budget-process scrutiny. The Tiverton Taxpayers Association endorsed candidate slate will fight to protect the FTR and ensure that the casino money is available to offer tax relief.

Jeff Caron

Tiverton

The author is a candidate for the Charter Review Commission.