Submitted by Jim Finn, Cos Cob
On Friday, Greenwich’s GOP First Selectman Fred Camillo claimed his radio show on WGCH 1490 that if Democrats take control of town government in the upcoming elections, they will “pile on debt.”
Let’s tell the truth about Republican mismanagement of our town’s finances for decades.
Because the GOP failed to invest in the maintenance of our schools, Hamilton Avenue School* had to be torn down and replaced with an entirely new school.
Because Republicans failed to invest in our schools, North Mianus School’s ceiling caved in, smashing to the floor, and breaking numerous water pipes that resulted in devastating flooding. Thankfully, the ceiling collapsed on a weekend, so the GOP’s malfeasance did not result in children being killed.
Because Republicans failed to maintain our schools, Central Middle School was condemned, and everyone ordered out of the building. Only after steel scaffolding was constructed on the outside of the building have students and staff been permitted to return on a temporary basis.
Because Republicans failed to invest in our schools, Old Greenwich School is beset by sewage and flooding issues, and remains out of compliance with ADA requirements.
The simple truth is that though our town’s debt is relatively low, the GOP has ruined our school facilities by refusing to invest in them.
Camillo claims that if Democrats implement long-term financing, Greenwich could lose its AAA rating. In fact, every single AAA rated municipality in the state of Connecticut utilizes 20-year financing. And their school facilities are in far better condition than are Greenwich’s.
Further, not only is Greenwich not in danger of losing its AAA rating, Greenwich is ranked in the top 10% of all AAA-rated municipalities nationally.
Over a decade ago, Democrats on the BET urged the town to take advantage of record-low interest rates to invest in new schools and facility upgrades. Had we done so, we would have been paying off the long-term bonds with negative real interest rates, letting inflation pay for the debt. But the Republicans stuck to their antiquated debt policy, while refusing to take care of our schools.
Today, while Camillo and Republican officials slash capital requests for our schools, the town is sitting on over $90 million in cash in the general fund balance that Republicans refuse to utilize. That figure is tens of millions of dollars in excess of minimum required levels set by the BET Republicans themselves. Further, far from losing our AAA rating if we make use of that massive cash balance, Greenwich actually held a AAA rating, indeed was ranked near the top of all municipalities in its fiscal metrics 15 years ago when the cash balance was zero.
Fred Camillo claims that Democrats “pile on debt.” But Camillo doesn’t know, or doesn’t understand, that under Republican control, Greenwich’s per resident spending is fifth highest of any municipality in the state of Connecticut.
The bottom line is that Camillo and his fellow Republicans simply don’t care about our public schools. They want to starve our public schools of both operating and capital funds because they report to parents who send their kids to private schools. Private school families are the tail that wags the GOP dog. Yet 70 percent of Greenwich youth attend our public schools. It is shameful that Fred Camillo and his fellow Republicans just don’t care about them.
Soon, I will write about the Wizards of Wall Street. They live in our town and understand that the way we finance our town is completely insane.
Note: Mr. Finn asked the letter be updated to refer to Hamilton Ave School instead of New Lebanon School in the third paragraph.
