I don't make a habit of responding to every letter that appears in the newspaper criticizing the Town Council. Criticism is part of the job and can often be constructive and helpful.

However, as the "silly season" approaches, certain individuals with obvious political agendas will cross the line and try to spin half truths into hard facts. On those occasions, a response is required. I write in response to the letter in the May 1 edition of The Valley Breeze authored by Mark G. Dosdourian, a member of the executive board of the Cumberland Republican Town Committee.

If you read the editorial written by Publisher Tom Ward explaining the Town Council's actions in setting the tax rate and then read Mr. Dosdurian's letter, you can see the inconsistencies as plain as day.

It is obvious from his letter that Mr. Dosdurian does not know the difference between a tax rate increase and a tax increase. It is true that due to declining property values the council was forced to increase the tax rate higher than the self-imposed cap of 4 percent. It is not true, and is in fact misleading, to state that the council "reached into the average homeowner's wallet and pulled out a 6.6 percent tax increase." In fact, the "average" homeowner, as Mr. Ward correctly points out, will suffer "little tax pain" and some may even see their taxes decline. Does this sound like a "snatch and grab" to you? Interestingly, Mr. Dosdurian doesn't mention who was actually doing the snatching and grabbing as we and every other community in the state were told by our Republican governor that he was taking away almost $400,000 in the middle of the fiscal year! Can't be speaking ill of our fellow Republican, can we Mr. Dosdurian?

The most disturbing part of Mr. Dosdurian's letter is the blatantly false accusation that the council is engaged in a pattern of avoiding public input in making their decisions. Mr. Dosdurian claims we accomplish this by "tabling an ordinance until a few days later" and then "passing these ordinances when there are no citizens present to protest or comment on (our) actions." This is simply not true. Mr. Dosdurian goes on to state that public input at our meetings is "politely heard and then dismissed" by the council. Again, not true. In fact there have been many occasions when the council has postponed making a decision because of the public input expressed at our meetings. One of the main priorities of the current council has been to open up the process of government to its citizens. We have posted notices on the doors of the council chamber informing citizens of their right to be heard and have expanded the items on the agenda where they can be heard. We have posted every available position on our boards and commissions and solicited applications for these positions. In the next few weeks citizens will have unprecedented access to our meetings online at the town Web site.

I suspect we will be seeing Mr. Dosdurian at our upcoming budget hearings. I look forward to hearing from him with some solid proposals on how to cut spending in the next fiscal year. Rest assured we will be all ears.

James Higgins, president

Cumberland Town Council