Signed, Your Rogue GOP Finance Board 🙂
Newsletter Volume 4 • Number 8
We are just weeks away from the start of school, and this year promises a doozy!
Public school parent and Democratic Board of Ed candidate Veronica Chiavaroliwarns of an extra-severe traffic snarl along Route 1, whether you’ve got kids or not.
Why? Six Republicans on the “Board of Estimate and Taxation” (BET) randomly slashed a bipartisan public school budget, ignoring massive opposition. To avoid cutting academics, our schools pushed start times earlier, and laid off 23 teachers and staff.
You saved 37¢
The outgoing PTA Council president calculated the average homeowner savings at 37¢ per day in property taxes.
That same BET GOP hacked away at other long-delayed town maintenance items and improvements with little regard for constituents or consequences.
Wondering how our budget works?
Greenwich’s budget process isn’t too complex to understand or act on. Budgets reflect not just our community’s priorities, but values too. And by voting in municipal elections, you are the boss:
- The First Selectman proposes a town budget
- The Board of Education proposes a schools budget
- The BET holds the purse strings, deciding allocations for operations and capital projects, and sets the mill rate (property taxes)
- And the Representative Town Meeting can approve, reject, or cut the budget, but cannot add money
So every fall right about now, our schools, agencies and departments prepare budgets for the fiscal year starting the next July 1.
In theory the BET gives general guidelines for the tax rate in advance. But this is where recent history shows we’re in trouble. In practice, this rogue GOP majority has issued those guidelines in secret, long after budgets are set, without consulting managers, reviewing strategic plans, or holding a BET budget committee vote. This year? They won’t release their guidelines until November 6th, after the election! Hmmm…what are they afraid of?
How it plays out
Each January, the First Selectman presents the town and schools’ budgets to the BET. Over three months, the BET holds hearings before voting on its revised version.
You’d think there would be time for you to weigh in. Not really. The First Selectman’s proposed budget is prepared in secret, and only on the night it is unveiled can townspeople comment. The BET’s hearings on the plan are public, but there’s no time for additional public comment until right before the very last day in April—“Decision Day”—when decisions are already locked in.
This year, hundreds stormed Decision Day, demanding a say. Cries of “Shame!” fell on deaf GOP BET ears. The RTM issued a rebuke, but had no power to change reality.
Your one chance to be heard
The only way to express your opinion is at the municipal election in November. Vote for leaders who share your values and priorities.
Board of Selectman Democratic candidates Anthony Moorand Rachel Khanna will lead a transparent process and use the power of the bully pulpit to support our schools, not sue them. Democratic BET candidates will respect your voices and your pocketbook.
So if your mornings offer a rude awakening this fall, remember who brought that to you when you get to the polls, a rogue GOP majority and their broken budget process. How to use your vote for the BET so Democrats gain a majority.
Run for a seat at Greenwich’s biggest table — the RTM
If you’ve ever thought about getting involved in local affairs, now’s the time. This fall, you can run for Greenwich’s Representative Town Meeting (RTM) — our 230-member local legislature and the third-largest legislative body in the entire country.
The RTM makes the decisions that shape our town: It votes on changes to town laws and codes, approves the annual budget, considers midyear spending requests, and confirms appointments to key town bodies.
In the last session, a bipartisan RTM delivered real results.It rebuked the Republican-controlled Board of Estimate and Taxation for its $4 million cut to public school funding, pushed the Board of Education (BOE) to pursue a cost-saving renewable energy project at Hamilton Avenue School, and passed a summertime ban on noisy, polluting gas leaf blowers.
It wasn’t always this way. The bipartisan coalition that won control of the RTM in 2023 defeated a right wing extremist bloc which had tied the town legislature in knots when they:
- Tried to shrink the new Central Middle School to a size smaller than what the BOE said was needed, and block Old Greenwich School funding.
- Rejected a state grant of $2.8 million to make Greenwich Ave. accessible to people with disabilities, and thus shifting the cost of this work to Greenwich taxpayers
- Tried to block a $500,000 capacity-building grant awarded jointly to our Republican and Democratic registrars of voters; then tried to overturn the vote that didn’t go their way.
Judging by the current disarray in the Republican Party, these extremists are likely to stage a comeback. The best defense is a strong, reasonable, collaborative RTM — and that means new sensible candidates like you.
Running is simple: get 25 signatures from registered voters in your district (aim for 35 to be safe) and submit your petition by September 15, 2025. More information here.
What we’re reading
“Fall Should Bring a Change in Greenwich’s Leadership”
RTM member Jennifer Andrews sums up the disasters of recent years as she calls for a change in local leadership this fall. She covers the attempts to push through pet projects, appoint unqualified cronies, the waste of town resources on pointless lawsuits and investigations, and the failure to listen to taxpayer concerns.
Andrews writes, “We will have the opportunity to vote for a team that has a plan and are both proven to execute. In his short time on the RTM, Anthony Moor has taken the previously benign RTM Transportation Committee and turned it into a vibrant and action-based committee. … Rachel Khanna has proven herself to be an indispensable asset to Greenwich, bringing in millions of dollars from the state to benefit our community members while serving as one of our House Representatives.” Read the editorial here.
Action calendar
September 14. Picnic.
Join us for our Campaign Kick-Off Picnic, an informal afternoon of food, conversation, and community. Meet local, state and federal leaders, connect with neighbors, and help us build momentum for a better Greenwich. Tod’s Point clambake area. Tickets here.
September 17. Meet.
Greenwich Democrats monthly meetings are open to all Democrats in town. Join us in the Town Hall Meeting Room at Greenwich Town Hall, 101 Field Point Road, 7:30 p.m.
| Volume 4, Number 8 • August 14, 2025 |
| Paid for by the Greenwich Democratic Town Committee. |
| Greenwich Democratic Town Committee P.O. Box 126 Greenwich, CT 06836 |