Can't say we're 'restoring' the Bristol budget with straight face

To The Daily Sun,

Bristol, fake news? Well, maybe you should ask Selectman Don Milbrand, since he is now the expert on fake news. I’ll let the facts speak for themselves and the voters and taxpayers to decide. When looking at the budget keep in mind you cannot compare the bottom line because debt was retired, and water and sewer is included, which operates as a stand-alone entity.

You can call a pig by any name, but it is still a pig. The 2019 Selectboard budget that was presented to the Budget Committee is a pig. The Selectboard should be ashamed of itself for presenting this budget. Don can call it restoring the budget, but in the end over 50 line items have gone up significantly, new line items created, and employee hours increased. Seems Don and a couple others are having a very, very, very hard time managing a town of 3,100 with what they have already.

My letter to the editor a week or so ago called out several of these line items so you are aware of what the Selectboard thinks is good financial policy. They add one-time capital projects into a budget when they should be separate warrants for you to decide if they have warranted your money.

This year Don and a couple other Selectboard members would like you to ante up $602,000 thousand in new operating spending, plus an additional $640,000 for warrant articles expenditures.

Don Milbrand would like you to think he is just restoring the budget. Look at the numbers and ask yourself if this is restoration or an increase! You voted last year to save $370,000 and Don wants it all back, plus 232,000 more. Restoration? I think not.

Town Meeting is where everyone gets to speak their view points (which takes time) and where you can make final decisions on the budget and the additional $640,000 in warrants by approving, amending or disapproving them. Money taken from reserve funds, undedicated funds or taxation is still your money. In the end this is your budget and your warrants that you need to control. Do not leave it up to a few like Don Milbrand to decide for you.

John Sellers

Bristol