David J Paull

Political platform statement

Why I am running for this office: Tiverton is a unique farmcoast community with so much to offer. Along with a stronghold of long-time residents, Tiverton is often sought after by young couples and families seeking to start a new life in an affordable community. It is for that reason we must continue to balance the business of all residents, not simply a small faction.

Town politics are known to be toxic and the Town Council often gets accused, unfairly in most cases, of mismanagement. Do we need more stability within Town Hall? Yes we do. We also need ensure that we have a professional Town Hall that demands excellence from Department Heads. Projects need to be managed better and accountability needs to be in place. Requests from the public for services need to be responded to in a timely manner but we must also give the departments the tools they need to do their jobs. Our budget process is another big issue.

The current form of approving a budget is a mess. You often have a committee of elected personnel spend countless hours vetting a budget, only to have a petitioner undercut the process and inflate revenue estimates. This occurred with the gaming revenue as the voters decided for instant tax relief over long term financial and tax stability. The voters were sold a bar of gold by a small tea party group in pushing for the defeat of restricting gaming revenue.

With COVID hitting causing a significant loss of gaming revenue, Tiverton was forced to slash and burn the budget and still needed to raise the tax rate. This included level funding our education system. Gaming revenue must be kept off the revenue and used instead to reduce the budget responsibly. Thank you for your time.