06/13/2026
Our ponies want well educated kids riding them.
Copied from Shannon Louden
So, “Andover Taxpayers”,
It seems that the First Selectman wants to spend a couple thousand dollars to defeat AES’ budget. Before I digress, please affirm your actual support for providing Andover’s children with an “excellent education” by voting YES on Tuesday, June 16th, to pass the AES and RHAM budgets. The 6% increase in AES’ budget on which you’ll be voting would result in a 1% tax increase and a .01% mil rate DECREASE! Any increase less than 6% for AES would be devastating.
Now, to assess this THIRD mailer, I suggest that we use Mr. Maguire’s criteria to comment on the Board of Selectmen’s (BOS’) recent budget history for the Town’s one-third portion of the total Town budget. If a “double-digit increase” demonstrates that the balance between “organizational goals and fiscal responsibility has been lost”, didn’t the BOS lose its balance 2 years ago? How was it fiscally responsible for the BOS to propose/need a 16% budget increase for the 2024-2025 fiscal year?! And, once the Town approved a 15% increase, that increase remains in the BOS’ budget.
In the past 6 years, the BOS’ budget has had a net increase of 25% while AES’ budget has had a 12% net increase during that same period of time. AND, to further exacerbate the disparity, the BOS’ portion of the Town’s budget had increased during the 5 years preceding 2020, while AES’ budget DECREASED by 9%!
So, over the past 11 years, AES’ net budget increase has been 7% while the BOS’ net budget increase has been more than 25%! Is that fair? A 6% budget increase for AES would just about bring Andover’s investment in its AES students to 1/2 of the BOS’ budget increase during the same period of time!
The “financial realities facing Andover’s taxpayers” are: a 6% budget increase for AES would be its largest increase in 11 years AND would result in a DECREASE to the mil rate.
Don’t get fooled by Mr. Maguire’s diatribe or the BOS’ double standard. “Accountability” and “transparency” for the BOS would require it to finally disclose the actual amounts in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in “reserve funds” that the BOS can use to meet its financial needs and shortfalls, which actual amounts a number of elected officials have requested.
Let me be clear: Any vote against a 6% increase in AES’ budget truly would be a vote against our students and their education. Please vote YES on June 16th.
