Al Althenn of China, ME When are the people in charge of the balloting for the China School budget going to break the budget down into segments for the taxpayers to vote on like most other Town budget items, instead of an up or down vote on the WHOLE school budget. The school budget is go large and complex that like many bills that come out of the U. S. Congress, it can and probably does, contain a lot of fat and pork that many people just don’t have the time and ability to understand or the money to pay for.

The strategy of the school budget people seems to be to make people vote again and again on slightly modified budgets until the voters are worn down and the school committee gets the budget it wants, passed. No one ever really knows what part of the budget the voters can’t or aren’t willing to pony up the money for.

For instance if the budget is broken down into segments of five, ten, twenty or more different parts to vote on the voters may be able to better understand and vote down that part of the budget they believe is being wasted. Lets say the oil consumption is very high, the voters may be able to check up on the school and find the heat is kept too high during periods when students aren’t present, like at night, weekends and vacations times and demand it is run more effeciently. Right now unless you are an accountant and have lots of time to go over and understand the budget you have no idea if your vote is allowing the school to waste your money on heat that is not needed. There are many other examples.

I think it is really unfair and unreasonable of the School Budget system to lump everything together and make it very hard for the average person to understand what is going on at the Towns biggest tax expense.report abuse