Newsletter Volume 3 • Number 41
Public schools set for the guillotine next
An emboldened right wing majority on the Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET) ran roughshod over town projects Thursday, cutting and delaying initiatives on party line votes with little regard for constituents or consequences. The effort seemed designed to hit everyone somewhere, and was at odds with their own Republican First Selectman’s expressed wishes.
Rink users were targeted as Republicans voted twice to defund the revamped First Selectman’s committee that’s planning the new rink. But after agreeing to Democrats’ appeals to add back $50,000, they “disappeared” placeholder sums in future years for architecture, engineering and building. “If you’re voting against this you’re essentially voting against the Hamill rink,” charged BET Democrat Elliot Alchek.
Chickahominy residents and school parents will have to live with a noisy, temporary HVAC system at the Hamilton Avenue school longer. Despite votes by the Board of Education (BOE) and the town legislature ordering a fix to the school’s geothermal HVAC, Republicans slashed the project and told the BOE to come back with a plan to install a gas-powered system instead.
Drivers, pedestrians, kids on bikes and people with disabilities all saw various small-dollar projects axed or pushed out, from road repaving to traffic light pole assessment.
Homeowners concerned about the rising risk of flooding saw a host of flood mitigation plans redlined, deferred or disappeared. Votes came with comments from GOP Board Chair Harry Fisher disputing climate data. “There’s a theme here where we’re not acknowledging experts and professionals,” said BET Democrat Matt DesChamps. “We’re supplanting it with our own personal opinions.”
“Constitutional crisis?”
Republicans denied Greenwich departments money to buy electric leaf blowers, now required by a new town ordinance. Despite being overwhelmingly passed by our town legislature, the BET right wing claimed they don’t have to abide by the law. This, along with the GOP’s vote to deny the Hamilton Ave. school its geothermal HVAC system which was approved by the bipartisan school board, prompted the observation that this is a “constitutional crisis.”
“Are we going to say to the First Selectman we don’t like the rules he passes?” asked BET Democrat Stephen Selbst. “There is no end to the principle that says we’re the supreme authority. I think this exceeds our mandate and I think it’s seriously wrong.“
Cooking the books
Republicans also rammed through votes to “disappear” other, future projects beyond the ice skating rink. They erased a placeholder sum of $59 million to harden the town’s sewage treatment plant in 2029, and $39 million to renovate the North St. school in 2031, for instance.
Town Comptroller Peter Mynarski told the board in his 21 years here, he had never seen the BET remove projects from capital planning spreadsheets until last year. “This is cooking the books!” cried Democratic BET member David Weisbrod, a former vice chairman at JPMorgan. “There’s no other way to talk about it.”
Right wing formally calls for a $4m cut to schools
As the day ended, nearly $5 million had been cut. But next Republicans launched what appears to be the most dangerous salvo. They made an amendment to cut schools dramatically. Superintendent Toni Jones warned on Wednesday this would have a long-lasting impact on classroom programs, staffing, and student services.
Republicans pressed for an instant vote. But Democrats insisted that they could not proceed on such a significant cut without time to consider the impacts. Deliberations resume Friday at Town Hall at 8:00 a.m. Show up and wear red! Greenwich’s acclaimed public schools hang in the balance.
And now Trump’s coming for your right to vote
Do you have your birth certificate handy? And if so, does the name on it exactly match a federal ID? If it doesn’t, you may not be able to vote in future elections according to a patently illegal executive order signed by Trump last week.
The ominous order asserts presidential authority over the conduct of elections, a power explicitly accorded to the states in the Constitution. Our local and state Republican leaders, who loudly support local control when it comes to Hartford, have yet to make a peep about this federal encroachment on local authority.
“If it ever went into effect, it would be the biggest mass disenfranchisement of voters since the Jim Crow era,” said state Rep. Matt Blumenthal, chairman of the state legislature’s election committee.
Voter fraud is vanishingly rare. Nevertheless, Trump’s order requires voters to show a REAL photo ID. Student or military ID’s don’t count. It also requires proof of citizenship to register. Studies have shown that as many as 30 million Americans who have the right to vote would lack the required ID under this kind of order. Only about half of Americans have passports to prove citizenship.
A different married name? Sorry.
Moreover, anyone whose name on their REAL ID is different from their birth certificate would also not be allowed to vote, thus disenfranchising all the married women who took on their husband’s name.
The order also requires signature verification for absentee ballots. This extremely flawed process is under litigation in NY which, in a 2018 election, led to the silent rejection of 14% of mail-in ballots without notice to voters or the opportunity to cure their ballot.
Trump threatened states failing to comply with the loss of federal funds for law enforcement.
“This executive order is an unlawful overreach that will harm eligible voters and disrupt our state’s election process,” CT Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas warned. “We don’t need more unfunded mandates or federal interference. We need election policies that protect the rights of all citizens and preserve the integrity of our democracy.”
What we’re reading
We are sleepwalking into autocracy
US Senator Chris Murphy explains the logic of Trump’s assault last week on universities and law firms in his interview with the New Yorker. “In democracy after democracy, higher education and the legal profession are the foundation that undergirds the rule of law. …The legal profession contests efforts to destroy the rule of law.
And so it is not coincidental that that’s where Trump is going first….By taking on these very high profile institutions the administration is sending a warning to other law firms and other colleges that if you take us on, if you file lawsuits against the administration, if you represent Democrats, if you allow campus protests you’ll be next.” Listen to the interview here.
Action Calendar
April 5. Rally.
Come together for the nationwide Hands Off rally this Saturday. 9:45 a.m., 290 Greenwich Avenue.
April 9. Gather.
Come to our monthly DTC meeting and hear from CT Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz, 7:30 p.m., Greenwich Town Hall Cone Room, 101 Field Point Road.
April 10. Learn.
Hear our State Comptroller Sean Scanlon discuss the impact of federal decisions on our state budget, and get your questions answered. Moderated by Rachel Khanna. 10:00-11:30 a.m., YWCA Greenwich. RSVP here.
| Volume 3, Number 41 • April 4, 2025 |
| Paid for by the Greenwich Democratic Town Committee. |
| Greenwich Democratic Town Committee P.O. Box 126 Greenwich, CT 06836 |