Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2004 6:54 PM
To: Jim Speich; 'Mark Zacchio'; Michael Monts; Steven McGuff; Harrison, Thomas F.; Thomas Gugliotti; William R
Hooper
I would like to close this e-mail with the following statement (please pardon me while I get up on my high horse):
Whether or not the Town of Avon's budget passes at the third referendum on June 28 is not important if those who
seek higher town and school spending fail to recognize that they are asking the majority of taxpayers to approve
and fund their request for more money. "Nobody spends somebody else's money as carefully as he spends his
own." This is a quote from the "Seven Principles of Sound Public Policy" (by Lawrence W Reed in his remarks
before the Economic Club of Detroit, June 2001). Stated another way, it is far easier to spend other people's
money rather than one's own; and, that has never been good public policy. Both the Town and the Board of
Education must demonstrate their willingness to implement structural adjustments when taxpayers deny their
request. Rhetoric and spin will not change the fact that taxpayers are unwilling to pay for higher spending without
commensurate actions to contain spending increases.
It is also important to remember one other principle: "Government has nothing to give anybody except what it first
takes from somebody, and a government that's big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take
away everything you've got." (Seven Principles of Sound Public Policy, supra; Emphasis supplied)
Respectfully,
Vir Santos
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