Minutes of the Hearing of the Legislative Council
Held in the Board Room in the Newtown Municipal Center,
3 Primrose Street, Newtown, Connecticut
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
* These are draft minutes and as such are subject to correction
by the Legislative Council at the next regular meeting.
All corrections will be documented in minutes of the meeting at which they were corrected.
Chairman Jeff Capeci opened the hearing at 7 pm.
PRESENT: Dan Amaral, Jan Andras, Gary Davis, Rich Woycik, Kevin Fitzgerald, Jim Belden, Bob Merola, Mary Ann Jacob, and Chairman Capeci
ABSENT: George Ferguson, Ben Spragg and Kathy Fetchick
ALSO PRESENT: First Selectman Patricia Llodra, Finance Director Bob Tait, three members of the press, and four members of the public.
Upon opening the hearing, Chairman Capeci read the following: Notice is hereby given that the Legislative Council of the Town of Newtown will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 7:00 P.M. in the Board Room in the Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street, Newtown, Connecticut, to hear comments upon the 2011-2012 Annual Budget of The Town of Newtown.
VOTER PARTICIPATION:
George Schmidt, 12 Old Castle Drive, urged the Town to decrease the tax burden on its residents. He believes the budget was executed in the spirit of good will. As it has moved through the various Boards of selectmen, education and Finance there has been compared to last years a remarkable lack of animosity, and that everyone seems to be on the same page. Mr. Schmidt noted that while the process has certainly improved the civility in Newtown, it has done nothing to relieve the tax payers of their ever increasing burden. He indicated that the budget calls for a 2.7 % tax increase which is on top of the 2% increase the year before, the year before that, and the year before that.
According to Mr. Schmidt, for the past 17 years he has been paying taxes, the tax bill has increased every year, and the graph has marched upwards without interruption at a compounded annual growth rate of close to 5%. He added that “not once” had the taxes ever been the same as the previous year or reduced. He posed the same question to the Council as he did to the Board of Finance last week, “if we can’t hold the line now, when will we ever be able to hold the line,” he asked. “The answer is never.’
Mr. Schmidt reminded those present that the Board of Finance voted 3-2 to pass the Budget on to the Legislative Council. He thanked the Board and suggested the vote was ultimately the result of fatigue. However, he noted that there was a minority opinion to forgo a tax increase and he suggested that it was forcefully and articulately presented. Mr. Schmidt urged the council to consider it in their opinion. He stressed that the continual tax increase will ultimately drive way people at both ends of the age spectrum – the old won’t be able to come here and the old won’t be able to stay.”
He asked the council to consider this and thanked the Council for hearing him.
Gary Svendsen, 121 Brushy Hill, agreed the tax burden needs to be decreased. He told the Council that he has been a resident in town for 21 years and noted that property taxes have double in that time. Mr. Svendsen suggested that when the personal property taxes on motor vehicles didn’t bring in the money necessary, the real estate evaluations went up. He stated that when he went down to the tax assessor’s office to ask about it, he was “greeted with a deaf ear.” Mr. Svendsen eluded to the financial problems the federal and state government’s face. He asked “where do you hold the line” and questioned whether residents should allow the taxes to keep rolling up.
Mr. Svendsen suggested that of the $106 million town budget – $80 million is for the schools and the rest is for debt reduction. He added that he doesn’t want to take away money from the schools, but questioned where they make the budget cuts.
Mr. Svendsen said that if he is out of line that he asks for their forgiveness and subsequently thanked Council members.
Dan Kormanik, 85 Great Ring Road, Sandy Hook, also suggested that the taxes in Town needed to be addressed. He indicated he has lived on and off in town for 15 years and another 20 years in Brookfield. He told the Legislative Council that he had served on both the Board of Finance and School Board in Brookfield.
Mr. Kormanik said he understood that times were tough right now and explained that he is retired, recently beat cancer and that his wife was unemployed for a month before recently being rehired. He added that he also had to educate five children through universities. He noted that in his retirement he has income properties, but not all the people can pay the rent.
Mr. Kormanik said he realized that everyone worked hard to produce the budget and added that it was better budget than any in the last ten years by far. Although the Board of Finance narrowly approved the budget, he thanked those members of the Board who voted no and suggested that if in fact these were normal times this would be a good budget but these are not normal times.
According to the Mr. Kormanik, the Governor’s talk about shared sacrifice makes his “hair stand on end”, and he suggested that the Governor wants a 3% spending increase. He added that this is not a shared sacrifice – the Governor is not taking a 5% pay cut and neither is anyone who works for him. Mr. Kormanik suggested that the local spending increase of 2.6% is not a shared sacrifice either.
According to Mr. Kormanik, from 2000 to 2007, housing appreciation was 77% when historically the number for any ten year period for last 180 years has been 3%. He noted that when it should have gone up 21% during that 7 year period and it went up 77%. He added that the values have fallen 40%, but suggested that the pendulum never stops when it is supposed to and that they will continue to fall more before recovering.
Mr. Kormanik informed the Council that most of the people he talked to feel the Town over-built the high school. He pointed out that studies have shown the student population is decreasing, and noted that Mr. Rosenthal suggested the Town build the school scale able, but it didn’t do that.
Mr. Kormanik stressed that if Newtown keeps increasing taxes the people who have businesses will flee.
He suggested that there is “waste” in the budget – some which can be changed. Mr. Kormanik noted that the fix has to start locally and that they get rid of the revaluation cost $800,000. Subsequently, he thanked the Legislative Council for allowing him the opportunity to speak.
Chairman Capeci thanked everyone for coming to the hearing. He reminded them that there will be a vote on the charter revision Tuesday, March 29, 2011. The Chairman indicated that the revision change stipulates that at the Annual Budget Referendum, the proposed budget shall be approved as a whole by a majority of those voting or rejected as a whole by a majority of those voting. He added that if the budget is rejected, voters shall indicate whether the Budget is being rejected as “too low” or “too high”.
The Chairman suggested residents check the Town website if they were interested in attending committee or final Council budget deliberations on April 6, 2011. In conclusion, the he reported that the Budget referendum will be held Tuesday, April 26, 2011.
Chairman Capeci closed the hearing at 7:18 pm.
Ted Swigart, Clerk
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