We, the members of the Windham Democratic Town Committee (WDTC), believe in promoting issues that will improve our community.

Therefore we submit the following platform as an invitation for open dialogue and civic engagement:

Building a Unified Windham

We believe that we have a wonderfully diverse community that needs to come together as one to break down divisive barriers.

• We seek community participation in our local government and Democratic Party.
• We support the encouragement of diversity in the ownership of local businesses.
• We support and encourage community-building activities including the establishment of a community center.
• We support an ambulance service that is affordable to the community as a whole and provides quality, efficient service to all of our residents.
• We support a division in the state PILOT funds that is fair to all of our residents.
• We believe in a study to look at our current institutions and structures to find out if they fulfill our community needs.
• Downtown

We believe that our Downtown has great potential, and that it must be a main focus point for our community.

• We encourage Town and business leaders to actively seek investors to take over vacant shops Downtown.
• We believe that to reach its potential our Downtown must have the support of the community, police, adequate lighting, beautification, partnership with ECSU, fire protection and good recreation programs.

Education

We believe that investment in a good education is key to the successful future of our Town.

• We must promote quality education for all of our children, which in turn will positively impact property values & keep the Town vital and competitive.
• We pledge to work hard not to cut school budgets.
• We support continued and expanded diversity in education programs, including: pre-school, after school, bilingual, Companeros, gifted, at-risk, early intervention and adult, continuing and early childhood education opportunities.
• We must work at the state level to promote reform of the state education cost sharing formula (ECS).

Housing

We believe that all residents should have equal access to quality, affordable housing - be it in the form of home ownership, rental or supportive housing.

• We believe that a full-time Housing Code Enforcement Officer is needed to ensure the Town’s overall quality of housing.
• We believe that an effort must be made to find ways to eliminate blight, including exploration of programs providing tax breaks or other incentives for homeowners or landlords who make significant improvements to their properties.

Jobs & Economic Development

We believe that we must promote our Town’s resources for job growth and economic development.

• We believe that the state must expand our transit system so that workers can get to and from their jobs.
• We believe in support of progressive state tax reform, which will generate revenues that could only benefit our Town.
• We must encourage employers that offer a fair, livable wage and benefit package so that residents can be self-sufficient.
• We affirm employees’ right to unionize and bargain collectively.
• We must focus on a Town plan of development that learns from and utilizes successful, existing models of economic development and adapts them to our local strengths.