At last Thursday nights Candidates Forum, a question came up about what is an appropriate fund balance. The town of Cheshire apparently has an 8 percent fund balance which is growing by each years’ surplus and in layman’s terms is equvalent to one months expenses for the town.

Is 8 percent too much/not enough. I consulted with a local tax expert, (not myself believe me), and this person believes that 8 percent is sufficient.

 Why, because the only jam the town might get in is if the state of Connecticut does not come through with what was promised, or the election results don’t turn out the way I WANT THEM TO!!

A few years ago, the town of Cheshire was short approximately a million and a half dollars. The town had to scramble to adjust its budget accordingly to be in balance.

Now, if our budget is approximately $90 million, then at 8 percent, the surplus is approximately $7.2 million, which is a far cry from $1.5 million.

Now a candidate for Town Council said at the debates that a large surplus and fund balances are a disadvantage to the town when union contract negotiations are taking place.

On the other hand, the larger the fund balance, the greater the credit rating resulting in a lower interest rate for the town. The town’s interest rate is approximately four percent which is at a much lower interest rate than any taxpayer would receive. Wouldn’t the taxpayer want to pay off his/her own debt which is at a higher interest rate than the town’s?

You pay off your credit card balance before you pay off your mortgage. It is the same deal. Example: I am not going to empty my bank account (because of higher taxes), so the town can have a lower interest rate than I do. The town’s money is our money and is part of our debt load.

I want to thank my tax expert for his/her advice.

P.S. When you keep the mill rate as low as possible you attract businesses which pay taxes and keep the mill rate even lower.

Now on to more interesting stuff: the election is coming up and I am getting into the final assault. I am putting up more signs and handing out as much literature as possible.

I must report that handing out my secret weapon (money) to people seems to be working. People are thanking me and telling me they will support me. Wow, this is easy. Paying people to vote for you–amazing. I don’t understand what all the hard work is about. You slip people a C note and watch their faces light up. Phew!!

No No No. I am NOT handing out money to people. I am handing out jar openers with a facsimile of my sign imprinted on the front. It seems to have a positive effect on most people, because the human race loves to get somthing for nothing. Just look at all those old riot/looting tapes. 

I hope you are getting a kick out of those old cigarette commercials. How times have changed. It seems people were more gullable then when it came to cigarettes. Well, to their defense, they did not know the harm, just as I am sure, people 50 to 70 years from now will wonder why we all walked around with cellular phones to our ears and attracted all those radio frequency waves near our bodies. We will have to wait and see.

All I can tell you is something is “brewing” in connection with this Lifestyle Center. I will keep you all posted.

And finally, I do want to thank Steve Carroll, Tim White and Lou Murray for supporting me in my successful quest to be a participant in the Candidates Debate last Thursday night. I was nervous at first, but I think I did OK. I wanted to say more, but of course, we all had the time limit of seven minutes for all the questions. I think the League of Women Voters should have had two questions and let all the candidates debate them for an hour. That would have been even more interesting.