Taxpayers Are Not ATMs
Opinion | Governance
Sherman has always been a town that takes care of its own. We understand the social contract of living in a small community: a strong, safe, and well-maintained school benefits everyone, whether you currently have children enrolled in the district, whether your kids graduated decades ago, or whether you simply chose Sherman as your home.
When it comes to doing what is right for the town, we are all on the same side. But as we face a staggering $42.8 million bill to fix a decade of deferred maintenance at the Sherman School, that sense of unified community is being fractured by the very administration tasked with leading it.
Instead of treating this massive financial undertaking as a true community partnership, the administration has allowed the process to feel like an exclusive club. The message radiating from Town Hall to the broader taxpayer base—the empty-nesters, the retirees, the working professionals who are actually financing this project—is quietly dismissive: Your concerns don't matter, don't ask questions about how we got here, just hand over the money.
We are being treated not as a community of vital investors, but as a municipal ATM. And nothing proves this more than how the administration treats residents who simply ask to see the receipts.
The Disrespect of Secrecy
If you are going to ask neighbors to make a historic financial sacrifice to cover a $42.8 million crisis, the absolute least you owe them is respect. That respect comes in the form of transparency. Every taxpayer has a right to see the ledgers, the daily construction logs, and the internal communications that explain exactly how our money is being managed.
Instead, when Sherman CT News filed routine Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for these basic financial records, we were met with the exact same arrogance that has defined this entire project.
Under Connecticut law, municipalities have four business days to respond to records requests. But the administration simply ignored it. The delay became so egregious that a formal complaint had to be filed this week with the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC) in Hartford.
In a written response submitted directly to the state commission on Monday morning, First Selectman Don Lowe acknowledged that his office held onto a public records request for 16 days without fulfilling it. His excuse? He blamed a staffing absence, the weather, and casually told the State of Connecticut that he would fulfill the taxpayers' legal request for documents "in the best ways possible as time and nature allow."
The Friday Deadline
Let that sink in. You are being asked to write a blank check for $42.8 million to support this community, but when you ask to see the underlying ledgers, the First Selectman tells the state he will get to it when his schedule and the weather permit.
It is the ultimate display of disrespect to the taxpayers who are actually keeping this town afloat.
A hard, legal deadline for the final batch of these FOIA requests expires this Friday at 5:00 PM. The administration can finally produce the unredacted ledgers and communications surrounding this historic financial crisis, or they can continue to stall.
We are willing to do our part for Sherman. But we are not an open wallet to be taken advantage of, and we will not fund a $42.8 million project in the dark. Show us the respect of transparency, or face the legal consequences of hiding it.