Submitted by Barrett Burns, Greenwich.
Open letter to the Greenwich Board of Estimate and Taxation:
My wife and I have been life-long Republicans on both the national and local levels. Only when Lin Lavery and Jim Himes came on the scene did we break ranks to vote for them, otherwise we stayed loyal to the Republican party.
That loyalty changed recently as we observed the Greenwich Republican Party leadership taking a sharp turn to the right, mirroring the National Republican Party. When combined with the withholding of the Greenwich public school infrastructure physical plant funding, we then changed our registration to that of the Democratic party. To be clear, changing our party affiliation was to recognize that the Republican party has been moving too far to the right, driven by a handful of Republicans who, in our view, have highjacked the party on both the national and the local levels. The school infrastructure funding delays pushed us over the edge.
While the value of the Greenwich BET has generally been positive over the years, growing shortcomings of the BET are being well documented in the local media, so I won’t inventory them here. However, I will highlight, in particular, the Republican BET blocking critical infrastructure upgrades related to the Central Middle School and Old Greenwich Schools. These votes have been terribly shortsighted. In the 12 years I have spent as a Trustee of my boarding school, I quickly learned that the students’ environment heavily influences their learning. It’s time to pay serious attention to this fundamental principle. The current BET is risking our education system which, by the way, ultimately affects real estate values as has been frequently observed for Greenwich, including the resultant tax base and the local business environment.
This debacle suggests the Republican led BET is out of touch with both critical basic education fundamentals and a large constituency within our community.
The Republican BET reminds me of what defines a bureaucrat: (1) that it’s easier to tear things down or delay them than it is to build things; (2) take no risk; and (3) vote No, No, No, No and No.
It’s an easy way out, to take no risk and instead pass on the growing and cumulative risk to the next regime to resolve, most likely with a greater price tag associated with the attendant delays.
In short, saying no is simple with low risk …… in the short term. Finding solutions with positive outcomes is hard work, time consuming and can be messy along the way.
A new BET should look for opportunities and not obstacles. For example, a golden opportunity existed when interest rates for triple AAA rated munis were about 75 basis points back in 2021. Those rates are unlikely to happen again in our lifetime. A project could have been targeted to fund. Meanwhile the cost of capital has increased dramatically since 2021. Greenwich should have locked in some debt at these rates which would not have jeopardized our AAA rating and would not have increased taxes, meanwhile the risk to higher taxes and funding costs increases the more capital projects are delayed.
To have done nothing to take advantage of the absurdly low interest rates fits neatly and squarely within the role of a bureaucrat: no, no, no, no and no.
If managed correctly, fiscal conservatism and social moderation can work in harmony to build the proper infrastructure while not raising taxes, in this case the rebuilding of our school buildings.
Members of the community do not want bureaucrats who say no, no, no and no. Members of the community want leaders who sort through these differences of opinion for reasonable solutions and outcomes.
Consequently, the above is but one of the reasons we lost confidence in the Greenwich Republican party to responsibly govern Greenwich over the long term.
Jack Kennedy once quipped: “Politics is a merciless business”. That has been happening lately in Greenwich as well, prompted in large part by this swing to the right. The consequences of this drift will lead, ultimately, to value destruction within our community, specifically with respect to our public education system.
Sincerely,
Barrett Burns
NOTE: The deadlines for letters about candidates for the Nov7, 2023 Greenwich municipal election was Oct 30, 2023 at 12:00 noon.