From:                                                              
Susan Kniep,  President
The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations, Inc.
Website:  ctact.org
860-528-0323
May 26,  2004 

WELCOME TO THE 30th EDITION OF 

TAX TALK

 

Your update on what others are thinking, doing, and planning 
Send your comments or questions to me, and
I will include in next week's publication.  

Please note that TAX TALK is now on our Website

 

Susan Kniep, fctopresident@ctact.org

FCTO President

Subject:  FCTO In the News

 

 

 Communities Feel Effects of Taxpayer Groups

 

Budgets Rejected in Referendums

 

May 24, 2004 Waterbury Republican News Article by Chuck Petruccione

 

After he forced Thomaston's municipal budget to a referendum, Tony Durso did not celebrate. It's not a victory, he said, it's the beginning of a war.  "This can't be a one-shot deal where we just look at one budget," Durso said. So he has begun collecting names in the hopes of creating a permanent taxpayer watchdog organization in town.  His idea may be new to Thomaston, but it is part of a growing trend across the region and around the state.  In Torrington, Naugatuck and New Hartford, taxpayer watchdog groups have formed within the last year. The groups join others including Watertown, Winsted and New Britain, which is Connecticut's oldest at 75 years.  The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations, formed in the mid-1980s to promote fiscal accountability by the state and in cities and towns, lists 28 different town organizations on its Web site.  Susan Kniep, president of the coalition, said taxpayer worries have been bubbling just below the surface for years, and tough economic times are bringing to the fore.  In Torrington, an organization was launched over the superintendent of schools' hefty pay contract. The Naugatuck group came about because some residents felt school spending was driving the town's tax rate out of control.  Kniep said other groups have formed because of corruption scandals in cities like Waterbury and Bridgeport. At the state level, investigators are examining records to determine whether Gov. John G. Rowland's gifts from friends were in exchange for  lucrative contracts.  Kniep said taxpayer distrust of politicians is leading them to question budget appropriations. That prompted Thomaston's Durso to demand a referendum and set the stage for the formation of his town's watchdog group.  Durso said if Thomaston's proposed 2004-05 budget passes, the average homeowner will see taxes bounce from $3,469 this year to $4,097 next year, an 18 percent jump.  Rob Kane, chairman of the Town Council in Watertown, where the Watertown-Oakville Taxpayer's Association has been active for nearly 15 years, said it makes sense that residents in many towns are coming together fight tax increases.  "The price of everything is going up including milk and gas," Kane said. "Everything affects your pocket book, so nobody wants to pay more in taxes. The only place that taxpayers truly have any kind of say in their government is at the local level."  Kniep said taxpayer group membership is growing and they're flexing their muscles by exercising their constitutional rights to petition.  "That is the only protection we have, to be able to defeat a budget and send it back to the officials," Kniep said. "We have to tell them what we are willing to pay in taxes, not what they will impose on us. You are seeing budget referendums being defeated all over the state."  Since the beginning of the month, voters have rejected the following budgets:

·  Seymour's combined town and school budget

·  The Region 6 school budget, which includes Warren, Morris and Goshen

·  The Region 7 school budget, which includes New Hartford, Colebrook, Norfolk and Barkhamsted

·  The Region 14 school budget, which includes Woodbury and Bethlehem

·  The Region 15 school budget, which includes Middlebury and Southbury

·  The Region 16 school budget, which includes Prospect and Beacon Falls

·  Litchfield's combined school and town budget

·  Watertown's combined school and town budget

In Region 7, New Hartford's Citizens for Responsible Government sent a flier to residents outlining concerns about the proposed 5.86 percent budget increase. Voters then rejected the budget 648-267, although it passed in each of the district's three other towns. Mark Hawley, president of the group, said it's not a coincidence. There is a watchdog group in his town but not in the district's other towns, Barkhamsted, Colebrook and Hartland.  "We can make a difference, there's no doubt about it," Hawley said.  Using a flier is similar to efforts that have proven effective time and again in Watertown.  Jack Walton, spokesman for Watertown's group, said it also is not uncommon for his group to put up lawn signs or take out advertisements in newspapers when they don't support a proposed budget. He said the group's expenses are covered by the annual $10 dues paid by each of the group's 500 members.  While taxpayer groups rally to defeat budgets they say are irresponsible, those in charge of crafting budgets say residents simply don't understand that increases often are necessary.  In Plymouth, a recent town meeting had to beat back motions aimed at cutting between $800,000 and $1.6 million from the budget. David Merchant, chairman of the town's board of finance, said it is disturbing to see the work of his committee nearly decimated by a motion that doesn't include suggestions for where to cut.  Clifford Brammer, first selectman in Thomaston, said he doesn't think a referendum on the budget is a good idea for exactly that reason. He said only allowing residents to say yes or no to the bottom line is a bad idea.  "There is not a line item to cut from on the town side. We will be cutting services or employees," Brammer said. "If people are willing to cut services, come forward and tell us where to cut."  Steven Angelo has been the town manager in Winsted since December. He said he has seen taxpayer organizations in other places he has worked, including Massachusetts, where people just call for cuts all the time without being reasonable. He said that doesn't benefit anyone.  Skip Page, president of the Torrington Citizen Action Coalition, which was just formed this year, said his group intends to watch what the Board of Finance, Board of Education and mayor do, but they are not in place only to oppose those entities.  "We will take on any issues that we feel are important, even if that means supporting the town," Page said.  As an example, Page said the coalition and the city are in agreement that binding arbitration for salary disputes is a disservice to towns and taxpayers.  "I think it's always helpful to have additional citizens look at what we do," Angelo said.  Kane agrees. He said he may not always be on the same page as the taxpayer's association, but he values their input.  "I'm glad they get involved," Kane said. "It's easy for people to sit on the sidelines, but at least they come to the budget meetings. Whether they agree with me or not, this is still a democratic process, and I welcome participation from everyone."

                                                           *****

Richard Pozzo,

President, Winchester Taxpayers Association

Subject:  Winsted Residents Deny Tax Increase

 I am pleased that Richard and his wife will be joining FCTO for our breakfast meeting on June 26.  Read of Richard’s success below in another budget defeat as written by the Waterbury Republican Newspaper, May 26, 2004.o

WINSTED — Voters on Tuesday, by 150 votes, turned down a $26.7 million town budget proposal for the 2004-05 fiscal year.  A combination of projected education and municipal expenses, the proposal was nixed, 1,054 to 904, as just under 30 percent of the town's 6,555 registered voters went to the polls.  "This is a clear indicator that the taxpayers have had it," said David LaPointe, a member of the Winchester Board of Education and former president of a local taxpayers group. "Enough is enough."  "I voted no," said Ruth Wheeler of Torringford Street as she left the polls at Pearson Middle School Tuesday evening. "Property taxes are too high, and the town keeps taking the brunt of it because of the education budget and employees' salaries, which we can't do anything about."  However some, like Christine Royer of Chapel Road, turned out to back the budget.  "We have a responsibility to take care of the kids," she said. "We can't make the children the human shields to the administrative salaries."  Under the failed proposal, which is about $600,000 less than the current budget, the tax rate would have risen by 1.77 mills, from 30.12 to 31.89 mills. A mill is $1 for every $1,000 of assessed valuation. Taxes are going up despite what would have been a small increase because of $1.6 million in state and federal funding cuts.  The current municipal proposal is about $8,770,000; the education proposal is about $17,444,000. Bond payments of roughly $489,000 are included in the total but are separate from both budgets.  Selectmen will begin reviewing the budget at a special meeting Thursday at 7 p.m., Mayor Maryann Welcome said.  "We're going to sit down, discuss the budget and look at what cuts will have to be made," she said, adding it's too early to say where any cuts would come from.  Dick Pozzo, president of the Winchester Taxpayers Association, had a suggestion for the board.   "My position is still the same," said Pozzo, who waved a "Vote No" sign at voters as they drove by on Wetmore Avenue earlier in the day. "When the budget comes back to the Board of Selectmen, I think that they have to lobby really hard to get the Board of Education to cut at the administrative level, not at the teaching level."  School board member Todd Hayward said that's not possible.   "I'm not sure how they think we can run a school without administrators," Hayward said. He stood 50 feet away from Pozzo holding signs in  favor of the budget. "I see no way to replace these positions. Whether we like it or not, you can not hire talented people and not pay them commensurate wages."  Town Manager Steven Angelo hopes selectmen send the budget back to another referendum before the end of June to avoid paying 23 pink-slipped teachers as much as $60,000 in unemployment benefits from the town.  By charter, selectmen must call for a town budget meeting no fewer than 14 days, and no more than 28 days, after a referendum, Town Clerk Sheila Sedlack said.  The next referendum must then be held no fewer than 21 days and no more than 28 days after the town meeting, she said.

 

                                                          *****

 

Tom Durso, TDurso8217@aol.com

Watertown Taxpayers Association

Subject:  Revaluation and Government Theft

May 24, 2005

 

 Taxpayers can be held -up by the taxman in two ways, directly as in payroll or sales taxes or indirectly as in property taxes.  The most dangerous is  the real estate property  levy because it is easily manipulated to extract more money from us. For example the  new grand list shows a  huge increase in the average value of residential property in Watertown. Some homes have jumped 60% in assessed value. What this means is that we  local property taxpayers incur the honor of  giving up more of our family budget money  due to unrealized appreciation in our largest asset - our homes. We emphasize the word unrealized because with the stroke of a pen or the tap of a computer keyboard  the taxman or taxwoman decrees that we are rich enough to hand over our medicine , food, clothing or tuition money to town government even though our incomes are stagnant and totally unrelated to our home values. Revaluation in four year intervals is a legislative scheme inspired by the groups who directly benefit from higher property taxes, the public sector labor unions. They couldn't wait for ten year revaluations since their labor contracts are in 3 year cycles  so  they need more frequent access to our money  which caused  the new  four year  revaluation law.  The term "property  tax reform"  is another back door  entrance to our pocketbooks devised by  union-owned legislators and spending lobbies like the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM). Their vision of "reform" is nothing but raising our income, sales and other state  taxes while keeping our property taxes on the upswing and pretending that the "state" is coming to our rescue, with our own money of course. Local taxpayers would lose the power of budget referendums since we'd be dealing with the state taxman without the referendum power to control him or her.  Property tax "reformers"  never mention repealing property taxes because their intention is to increase our total tax burden to reward and fatten their educrat-union pals who in turn donate re-election cash to these friendly legislators. No, the reformers' main goal is to eliminate our resistance to tax hikes as we demonstrate by our budget referendums each year.    The problem is overspending in the government education monopoly not undertaxation of the state's producers.