Letter: A couple of suggestions for Barrington Town Council

Posted 7/16/21

I am writing in response to two Letters to the Editor that appeared in the Barrington Times along with suggestions to the Town Council as a way to resolve these issues. 

The …

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Letter: A couple of suggestions for Barrington Town Council

Posted

I am writing in response to two Letters to the Editor that appeared in the Barrington Times along with suggestions to the Town Council as a way to resolve these issues. 

The first came under the headline, “The Worst FTM Meeting This Year.” As a suggestion, the town council could adopt as a one time trial, an all-day paper ballot vote on the budget. Such a trial would provide a greater opportunity for increasing voter participation. This year only two tenths of a percent of the town’s eligible voters actually attended the meeting and voted. All-day voting would increase voter participation and would provide the opportunity for people with conflicts and for older seniors to cast their vote. During the annual budget meeting, the paper ballot was shown to be very useful and can easily be adopted to all-day paper ballot vote. 

My second suggestion is in regards to Jim Hummel’s recommendation to freeze the property tax for seniors. I suggest starting the freeze at the federal retirement age. For example, seniors who are at the retirement age and have lived in town for 10 years could get a 10 percent reduction on their property tax. People who have lived in town for 15 years could get 15 percent and so on. 

I am hopeful that these two suggestions can start a discussion with members of the council and also for the town residents to serve on a committee to create, provide input, and allow public comment in moving forward for action to adopt these ideas for better government.

John Taylor

Barrington

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