Why you should tune in for budget season

Newsletter Volume 3 • Number 31

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If you had a half-billion dollars, what would you do with it?

Do you care about Nathaniel Witherell, the town’s senior skilled nursing facility and care center? Its financial struggles continue to raise concerns about town ownership.

Do you send your kids to public school? Republicans on the town finance board are calling for cuts that could force laying off 40 teachers, or even closing a school.

Hockey families want money set aside to build a replacement for the Dorothy Hamill rink.

Worried about the rising risk of flood, and how much that could hit your insurance? The public works department wants funding to rebuild the North Street Bridge and protect town infrastructure from flooding.

Next Tuesday, the 28th, the town and schools will discuss their proposed budgets, while residents can speak up for their priorities at a public hearing afterwards.

Greenwich is distinct in CT for having, by far, the largest tax base, and the second lowest tax rate. Nevertheless, Greenwich’s infrastructure needs modernization and hardening to withstand the challenges of more frequent storms and new threats of wildfire. At 90 years old, Riverside School is in dire need of renovation. And we need to save on spiking electricity costs by moving to less expensive sources of energy.

The nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Greenwich released a study criticizing our decentralized government and lack of a formal strategic vision or plan. “Town capital priorities and criteria for project selection are unclear to the public and many participants in the capital and operating budget processes,” the working group wrote. “Prioritization decisions are sometimes made in private entirely by the elected leadership of the political party which controls the Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET).”

After the budget presentation, the BET Budget Committee kicks off three weeks of meetings, in which department heads answer questions about their budget requests. The public can comment on March 26 and 27. All meetings are open, available on GCTV or in-person, and culminate in a BET vote on April 1. After that, the budget heads to the Representative Town Meeting, which can only approve, reject or cut the budget, no additions allowed. So the time to advocate for your needs starts now through the end of March.


A smooth transition, yes, but a worrisome chill persists in D.C.

The inauguration that took place on a frozen Monday was not the outcome that a convincing majority of Greenwich voters had wished for. Here, Kamala Harris won 57% to Trump’s 41%.

But as Congressman Jim Himes noted recently, this presidential transition represented a crucial restoration of democracy over political party. “There was no violence this time around. No questioning of the legitimacy of voting machines, and no need to rush the Vice President to a secure location,” he wrote, urging Democrats to set “a good example for those who, with good reason, wonder about the future of the world’s greatest democracy.”

But worry about the future persists, and if you’ve followed the news in the last few days, your worry may be increasing.

Himes had thoughts about how we might approach this, too. “I think the solution will come from you,” he said. “It will come from conversations in supermarkets, parent pick-up lines, and doctor’s office waiting rooms about what matters most to us and what we want out of our government.”

Rebuilding the “Democratic brand,” he said, “will come from voters watching their local Democratic officials work hard and deliver actual change in their lives.”

Here in Greenwich, your Democratic representatives and Democratic Town Committee have long been committed to all of that: listening, working hard, and delivering what matters to you.


Action Calendar

Proposed town and school budget presentations from the First Selectman and Board of Education. 6:00 p.m. in the Town Hall Meeting Room (101 Field Point Road) and streamed on Greenwich Community TV (YouTube and cable). Have your say on what’s important to you during the Public Hearing which starts at 7:00 p.m.

The ACLU of Connecticut is hosting a Civil Rights Town Hall at the Greenwich YWCA (259 East Putnam Ave). Learn how to prepare for what’s coming with the Trump administration. Check-in starts at 6:30 p.m. and the program runs from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. with time for informal discussion until 8:30. RSVP here.

Grab your cowboy boots, put on your best dancing hat, and come join us for a fun-filled night of Country Line Dancing! 7:00 – 9:00 p.m., First Congregational Church of Greenwich, (108 Sound Beach Ave, OG). Tickets here.


US Senator Chris Murphy explains in his Substack the dangers of the “broligarchy” of tech leaders at Trump’s side. “What makes this particular oligarchy so worrying is that the companies that are folding into the Trump Administration are the tech and media companies — the very institutions that control the flow of information. They decide what news gets spread and who sees it.”


Volume 3, Number 31 • January 23, 2025
Paid for by the Greenwich Democratic Town Committee.
Greenwich Democratic Town Committee P.O. Box 126 Greenwich, CT 06836