Fiscal Responsibility - A Balancing Act

I am part of the Republican team of Cabral-Dudek as a candidate for the Board of Education for Region 17.  My background is primarily finance and education. I am a retired partner of the accounting firm of Ernst & Young, I taught auditing for 3 years at City University of New York and presently have a valuation consulting firm in Killingworth.

The Cabral-Dudek team believes there is a need for more fiscal responsibility in our town particularly in the areas of purchasing and maintaining open space and the task of educating our children. To help balance these priorities, Killingworth has recently raised tax revenues with a revaluation and floated interest-bearing bonds.  We must evaluate these functions and closely monitor the related cost efficiencies.

The education responsibility represents about 80% of our revenue base and is of particular concern. The education budgets have increased by 7.6%, 7.9% and 5.5% over the last three fiscal years ended 2007-08, respectively. These increases far exceed the cost of living and inflation rate increases over the same period. The total enrollment at Region 17 schools has remained stable over the past 5 years, and the SAT scores are considerably better than the State and National Average. Further complicating education budget problems are the need for resources to ensure the protection and safety of our students. This is an important phase of education that may test the boundaries of our education budget.

In addition to the education of our children, we need to continue to protect the rural character of our town by purchasing and maintaining open space. I believe we have not done this very effectively in the past and need to be more diligent in this endeavor. Floating bonds is acceptable if kept to a minimum and as long as everyone understands that it is not free money.

Finally, we need to maintain our revenue structure without major tinkering with the mill rate and burdening our residents, especially retirees who depend to a large degree on social security.

We can continue to provide a sound education and physical protection to our students as well as maintaining our rural character without creating further financial deficiencies. It will take a giant effort from all governing factions. Politics alone should not be a part of our education system financially or otherwise. How much higher do our SATs have to go and at what costs? What is the right amount of open space? How high do the tax revenues have to go?  Are more debt issues required? These are the questions of the times and need hard scrutiny. Our team is prepared to deal with such issues. In a world of terrorism and mean spirited politics, it is refreshing to have candidates like Rich Cabral and Fred Dudek with traditional values.

Jim Lippert