Community Need Vs. What Referendum Voters Want

To the Editor:

There are slightly fewer than 20,000 people who call Monroe home. This is our community.

There are about 14,500 voting eligible citizens (those 18 and older). Of those, about 12,500 are registered voters. On April 23rd, 4,251 resident electors cast votes. These are the Referendum voters.

Let's do some more analysis. 4,251/12,500 is about a 34% turnout. But, 4,251/14,500 is 29%. Of those people who can vote and call Monroe home, 29% used their vote to tell their elected officials whether they liked the presented budget or not. Moreover, 2,207 voters casted no votes on April 23^rd — 2,207/14,500 is 15%. Fifteen percent of voting eligible Monrovians defeated the budget.

On May 7th please get out and vote. No matter your political party affiliation you will pay taxes to the Town of Monroe. Why not have a say in how much those taxes will be?

The budget referendum allows each and every registered voter to have a seat at the table. And the last two times, a simple majority of voters seated at the table have said no. Back to the drawing board go the elected officials.

Creating a budget is a difficult task analogous to a tightrope act — what are the economic conditions of the state and country? What kind of winter will it be next year? More money for snow plowing? Less money for insurance, but more money for legal fees? The questions are endless, but what are the right answers? The ultimate answer is what the referendum voters are willing to support.

Except for three years since 1989 every year there was multiple referenda the no vote became less and less until the yes vote was able to muster 50% + 1 to pass the budget. But what is that magic mill rate or magic spending number that a simple majority of referendum voters can support? This question coupled with the question of what are our community’s needs becomes the base of the budget discussion.

Community need versus referendum voter want is an annual struggle. The entire community is in need of services such as social and senior services, infrastructure improvements, maintenance to town buildings, and a thriving educational system among a host of other municipal functions.

The leverage of the community's needs (100% of the population) decreases as the referendum voters’ (29% of the population and really the 15% of the population who voted no) wants start to increase with every failed referendum. Once the scales tip too far, we then run into a situation where the community, as a whole, starts to suffer. Even the referendum voters’ wants begin to get cut.

However, it is the referendum voters that get the last say in an automatic budget referendum town — a concept I wholeheartedly support. Know that your vote affects the entire community and that it is important to exercise that fundamental building block of our democracy to keep our democracy strong and vibrant. I would borrow the words of President James Buchanan, "I like the noise of democracy."

So, come on Monroe!  Let's all make some noise!

Nick Kapoor

Town Councilman