The views stated here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors of this newspaper.
To the Editor:
Recently there has been a bit of confusing information circulating regarding our town’s financing and capital planning. As your incumbent selectman, and as a champion for strong and transparent fiscal planning, I felt it important to clarify to the taxpayers how their money is carefully managed.
Killingworth maintains a ten-year rolling capital plan that is a matter of public record.
Each year this plan is evaluated and projects are selected, deferred, added and deleted based on priority including the input from all branches of our government and committees as well as input from the public.
Working closely with our Board of Finance, our current government leadership led by our First Selectwoman, Cathy Iino, has ensured a surplus of financial reserves is maintained. This reserve has routinely been called upon to offset unforeseen expenses or losses of revenue in order to minimize or avoid any impact to the taxpayers of the town.
In parallel our First Selectwoman leveraged her contacts with local, state and national representatives to advocate for minimizing the proposed state funding cuts to which she was largely successful.
Killingworth has a well-planned capital program with built in contingency to insure fiscal stability for our town that was well communicated to the taxpayers. Further, our First Selectwoman, Cathy Iino, demonstrated the leadership to take on our state to ensure our precious tax dollars do not only stay in Killingworth but, also, that the additional state funding due to Killingworth remains in place.
Lou Annino, Jr.
Killingworth
