Connecticut Politics and Elections: Coverage, Analysis, Maps and Commentary
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Open Forum
What's going on in your town? Municipal election information always welcome, especially about Andover, Bolton, Bethany, Woodbridge, Naugatuck and Union, who are holding town elections in about three weeks.
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
DailyKos is running a post that John Orman has started up an exploratory committee to start a primary challenge against Lieberman. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/15/114220/432 Anyone know if this is true? Anyone know if Orman is a worthy challenger or just a crank?
The Blue Back Development in West Hartford, continues to be an interesting political issue with a group trying to jam up the process by pushing for the town library, town hall, and the Board of Ed buildings being designated as federal preservation status.
Here in Plainville we're having a big to-do about our Annual Budget. The way our Charter is written, the Town Council acts as the Finance Board and sets the mill rate by approving expenditure levels for all of the town departments, plus the board of education. For the Town side, they have a massive amount of authority, but for the board of ed, all they get to do is set the total dollar amount, which clearly opens the door to contention. If the Board of Ed thinks they've been jipped, they can threaten to cut popular programs (ie sports) to blackmail the Council. Which is what is happening right now. The budget was voted down on Tuesday, and on Monday the council gets to make changes before it goes up for vote again. But, god bless us, we have a three-strikes rule where, if the third vote goes down, the budget passes anyways. And the Council can do whatever it wants with the budget. For the first time in 17 years, we have a 5-2 Republican majority, so it's very possible that they'll present the exact same budget to the people 3 times in a row, knowing it passes regardless. I think their odds for re-election this November are a bit slim... unless the Republican constituency has a thing against voting on budgets.
4 comments:
DailyKos is running a post that John Orman has started up an exploratory committee to start a primary challenge against Lieberman. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/15/114220/432
Anyone know if this is true? Anyone know if Orman is a worthy challenger or just a crank?
The Blue Back Development in West Hartford, continues to be an interesting political issue with a group trying to jam up the process by pushing for the town library, town hall, and the Board of Ed buildings being designated as federal preservation status.
Scott,
That's excellent. Keep us posted.
Here in Plainville we're having a big to-do about our Annual Budget. The way our Charter is written, the Town Council acts as the Finance Board and sets the mill rate by approving expenditure levels for all of the town departments, plus the board of education. For the Town side, they have a massive amount of authority, but for the board of ed, all they get to do is set the total dollar amount, which clearly opens the door to contention. If the Board of Ed thinks they've been jipped, they can threaten to cut popular programs (ie sports) to blackmail the Council. Which is what is happening right now. The budget was voted down on Tuesday, and on Monday the council gets to make changes before it goes up for vote again. But, god bless us, we have a three-strikes rule where, if the third vote goes down, the budget passes anyways. And the Council can do whatever it wants with the budget. For the first time in 17 years, we have a 5-2 Republican majority, so it's very possible that they'll present the exact same budget to the people 3 times in a row, knowing it passes regardless. I think their odds for re-election this November are a bit slim... unless the Republican constituency has a thing against voting on budgets.
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