By David Weisbrod, Democratic member of the Greenwich Board of Estimate and Taxation running for re-election
David Weisbrod
Since moving to this amazing town forty years ago, I have served our community as a soccer coach, followed by a member and subsequent Chair of the Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals. For the past eight years, I have served on the Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET).
It’s a perfect fit given my decades of experience in the world of finance culminating as JP Morgan Vice Chairman for Risk Management.
I have spent years volunteering for Greenwich. What I am seeing now is very troubling. Simply put, the BET is broken. Capital decisions are delayed until there is a crisis. By the time projects ultimately get a green light; costs have increased due to inflation and tariffs. Taxpayers are forced to pay more than necessary.
The Republican decision to defund Greenwich Public Schools by $4 million reverberated throughout the Town. As a result, teaching staff has been fired and a regressive shift in school start time has been implemented.
And it’s not just the schools. A number of BET Republicans opposed taking a state grant, that’s
right, free money, to launch a pilot program on food scrap waste removal. BET Republicans opposed utilization of a geothermal heating and cooling system despite engineering studies that showed it would save the Town thousands of dollars. BET Republicans arbitrarily cut $140 million from the Town’s strategic capital plan for projects that everyone knows are on the
horizon (such as a new ice-skating rink, or a necessary refurbishment of the Town’s sewer treatment plant). I consider this an attempt to cook the books – to distort the extent of the capital challenges facing our Town.
Today we have a Republican Party that is simply not normal. Over the past ten or so years the bipartisan spirit that prevailed under capable and civic minded Republican leaders has been replaced by a new, chaotic breed of Republican BET members. The honest give and take that was a feature of the BET has been replaced by Republican in-fighting among themselves, brinkmanship, and thoughtless use of the tie-breaking vote to delay and defeat opposition.
If ever there was a time for new leadership in our Town – it is NOW!
The Democratic team stands for fact-based decision-making. We must implement multi-year capital planning to optimally finance essential capital projects. We stand for thoughtful and cost-efficient maintenance of the Town’s infrastructure and smart investment in initiatives demanded by residents that will enhance quality of life. We are committed to using tested technology to reduce the cost of managing the Town.
It’s all about listening to the voices of our community, to restore responsible, bipartisan collaboration and to work each and every day to preserve a low and predictable mill rate.
Please vote for all six Democrats to support a return to capable fiscal leadership.