Blog#237- 3/18/25
ATTACK FROM THE LEFT
By
Richard Davis
Disguised as socially responsible budget cutting, the anti-government juggernaut has come to little Brattleboro, Vermont. Don’t be fooled. This is the 2025 version of the Trojan Horse. Our town only has 12,000 people but recently factions have formed to override the decisions of the selectboard as well as trying to push back on an increased police presence after safety issues were identified.
What appears to be a sizeable faction does not want to see the town pass any kind of ordinance that would restrict socially unacceptable behavior because they feel it would unduly target the more vulnerable people in town.
In addition, they want Brattleboro to continue to be an outlier in relation to towns in Vermont as well as around the country by allocating two percent or more of the overall budget to support human service organizations. That amounts to over $400,000. Most towns have either eliminated this support or cut it drastically.
The town was facing a 22% increase in property taxes and the selectboard cut that to 12% with the help of town departments. Some unfilled positions may not be filled, but no cuts to existing positions were in the new budget.
It is easy to call for cuts to a budget from a comfortable distance. We are seeing this play out on a national level and the effect is devastating. I’m not saying that we have a local version of the Trump-Musk cabal, but what is being proposed by this new faction may end up causing a great deal more harm than good.
So far, no one in the faction has called for the elimination of specific positions. A Finance Committee report does provide information for consideration but there are no specific examples of what those cuts should be.
If this new so-called socially conscious faction is to have any credibility it must show the people of Brattleboro how they are going to cut four or five million dollars from a $25 million dollar budget so they can say that they have lowered the tax increase to an acceptable level.
The faction seems to be willing to give a higher priority to the very low income and homeless population than to other socio-economic levels of townspeople. The currently proposed budget has attempted to keep everyone on equal footing, but that is not good enough for the faction.
Is it worth cutting a tax increase from $300 for the average person to $100 by eliminating positions in the police department, the fire department, the department of public works and town offices so they can say the tax rate is acceptable?
Those who call for increased budget cuts should be required to talk to the families of town employees and tell them their husband and father is losing his job and that their children will have to relocate to a new school and make new friends.
Some of the newly elected members of the selectboard have called for creative ways to manage the budget and one has even gone so far as to mount a campaign to have Representative Town Meeting members reject the proposed budget in order to try to make cuts that have been supported by the faction.
I hope Brattleboro does not become an example of a Trump-Musk like attack from the left, but only time will tell. Stay tuned.
