2007 Archives
The West Hartford Taxpayers
Association is keeping these articles and pages open for the public to review.
It represents information, updates and press releases that we posted in 2007,
especially with regard to the budget referendum.
Most recent will be posted
first.
Please take the time to see the referendum and
budget analysis on our Budget Information page.
(2007-08)
WHTA is providing the public
an Microsoft excel worksheet to
calculate their 2007 tax bill for their home. Just plug in the values for the
old property assessment and then the new property assessment and the worksheet
calculate out the rest. The new mill
rate for 2007 taxes is 38.63 and the phase in for revaluation is still over a 5
year period. For the first year 25% of
the old assessment is added on to the old assessment (2005 assessment times
1.25, only if your new assessment has gone up 25% or higher) and the balance
between that and the new assessment is divided up into 4 equal amounts and spread
out over the remaining 4 years. Those new assessment amounts will be applied to
whatever mill rates are decided in subsequent years which will also depend on
spending levels.
- An Article from the
Hartford Courant – DiBella Won’t Quit The MDC –
12/21/07 –
- An Article from the Hartford Courant – Rell
to revive proposed cap on local property tax increases – 12/20/07 –
Governor Rell is looking to propose a 3%
yearly cap on local property tax increases. The WHTA has been asking our town
council to consider a 2.5% cap on property tax increases and similarly to rein in
spending. The Council has said that
they could not accomplish this without the state making similar proposals. The
state also needs to address unfunded state mandates and binding arbitration to
make any type of caps feasible. There will be much discussion on this issue (A
policy such as Proposition 2.5 has been adopted in several other states). Here is information on Proposition 2.5 from Americans
For Tax Reform. Here are two reports from the CT Office of Legislative Research
which might be of interest (1) THE MISPERCEPTIONS ABOUT
PROPERTY REVALUATION and (2) ADOPTING PROPOSITION 2. 5 EXPENDITURE
LIMITS
- An Article
from the Hartford Courant – Towns To get CRRA Money
– 12/19/07 –
- An Article
from the Journal Inquirer – Not ready to pay the
bill, Conn ranks among worst at saving for public employee retirements - 12/19/07
- An Article
from the
- An Article
from the Hartford Courant - School Superintendent Gets 3.5% Raise, Contract
Extension Through 2010 - 07/07/07 - The board of education voted 4-2 Friday to approve a 3.5
percent raise for Superintendent David P. Sklarz, and extended the school
chief's contract through 2010. With the increase, the school system's top
administrator will earn more than $188,000 for the 2007-08 school year.
His salary for the just-completed 2006-07 school year was about $182,000. It
was about $176,000 two years ago. (Gee,
and all that from a Board of Education that couldn’t find another dime to shave
off the budget and who would cut programs for the kids before cutting an
increase for this superintendent. Pretty
amazing.)
- An Article from the Hartford
- An Article from the Hartford Courant - After $1.6 Million Cut, Council Adopts Budget – Read the article with commentary by Theresa McGrath. Bottom line – Council took a $500,000 reduction by the BOE and made other cuts in the Municipal budget to bring the budget down to one which has no increased spending levels overall from last year and the 4.54% property tax increase is only as a result of the property tax shift due to revaluation. WHTA will not be seeking another referendum. – 06/28/07
-An Article from the
- An Article
from the Hartford Courant – West Hartford Budget Public Hearing Tuesday – 06/25/07 – Finally the Town releases
some numbers and considered budget reductions to look at – They even include
the fact that they over estimated what West Hartford will receive in state
funding by $274,332, so now they must make the downward adjustment to that
figure.
Town Budget Reduction Options – Click
Here
Education Budget Reduction Options – Post Referendum – Revised June 25th – Click Here
Spending and Tax Increase Scenarios – Click
Here
- An Article
from the Hartford Courant – Council To Hold
Budget Hearing – 06/23/07
– Public hearing on the budget to be held Tuesday June 26, Town hall 7:30 PM –
and the Council will vote on a new budget Wednesday June 27, Town Hall 7:00
PM. Details of the new budget or what is
“on the table” have not been released to the public – even though our
Mayor has stated: "Everything is on the table," Slifka said,
"but we're guided by the goal of staying as far away from the classrooms
as possible." WHTA wonders how people can make comment with
no information from the town being provided to the public in a timely manner
before the public hearing.
- WHTA Press Release - WHTA's RESPONSE
REGARDING THE BUDGET, THE REFERENDUM, AND MISINFORMATION ALLEGATIONS –
06/15/07
- Press release from Governor Rell - Governor
Rell Cites Numerous Municipal Budget Rejections as Evidence of Need for
Property Tax Cap - Governor M. Jodi Rell today said Tuesday’s
rejection of the West Hartford town budget – the latest in a long string of
failed municipal budget proposals – makes it clear that her call for a limit on
annual property tax increases is desperately needed.
“From one end of
Connecticut to the other, voters have rejected town budget after town budget
and the reason has been constant: property taxes are going up too much,”
Governor Rell said. “Just this week voters in
- An Article
from the Hartford Courant – Town Facing `Wholesale Service Reductions' – 06/14/07 – More of the same from the Courant – they continue to
write negative barbs about the WHTA -
but they do not explain fully
why there was a big salary increase
in the Town Manager’s office in this budget .. nor do Town leaders, it wasn’t
just a 3% increase for an assistant. That budget line item for Payroll in the
Town Manager’s Office is shown to have increased from the 06/07 adopted $193,
507 to 07/08 adopted $228,714 (that’s an 18.2% increase). Our Town Manager’s
salary is in fact included in the
big increase in that line item. Overall,
the Town Manager’s Office expense increased from last year by 14.8%, from the
adopted 06/07 figure of $285,767 to the 07/08 adopted $328,103. Again, it looks
as if the town will go to eliminate whole programs instead of spreading
reductions all around. It’s the usual scare tactic. The WHTA refuses to speak
with the Courant as they continue their “anti-taxpayers campaign” along with
Town Council members. Anything we say will be twisted and misquoted. At least they accurately reported the fact
that we were assessed at the height of the market and are already overpaying on
the value of our homes: “Anger over an October revaluation that captured
sky-high home values and shifted part of the tax burden from commercial to
residential properties probably was enough to prompt voters to reject the town
council's budget in Tuesday's referendum.”
- An editorial form the
Hartford Courant – Back To The Drawing Board
– 06/14/07 - More accusations from the
Courant regarding WHTA spreading misinformation – such a shameful editorial
especially since the Hartford Courant has done it’s share of spreading
disinformation to the public regarding this referendum. WHTA is no longer
making comment to the Courant as they have skewed and spun anything we have
said in the past. WHTA is recommending that you cancel your subscription to the
Hartford Courant, as they cannot seem to muster any kind of decent unbiased
reporting in our town. One interesting quote: “misinformation
alone could not have produced such a lopsided result”. We believe that people woke up when they
received their tax bills the Friday before the vote. There was no one ad or
statistic that swayed anyone. The overwhelming numbers of people who voted
against this budget proves that people have had enough of our “tax and spend”
administration. They want to see lower taxes and responsible spending.
- An Article
from the
- An Article from the
Hartford Courant - Voters Reject West Hartford
Budget – 06/12/07 - According to returns released Tuesday night by the
registrars of voters, 7,893 votes were cast against he budget, against 2,939 in
favor. The spending plan went down in all 20 voting districts. A total of
10,832 of 36,846 eligible voters cast ballots, a turnout of 29.4 percent.
-An article by Bill Generous about West Hartford budget referendum and
other towns – 06/12/07
- An Article from the
- An Article from the Hartford
Courant – School Board Examining New Ways To Save
Money – 06/09/07 - The board created a subcommittee, made up of board
members and system administrators, to consider the consolidation of town and
school clerical, payroll, information technology and secretarial positions.
(Wasn’t consolidation of Town Hall and The Board of Ed building supposed to
have achieved all that already? Apparently the move was just about real estate)
Last year, the school system's offices moved from 28 South. Main St. into town
hall. The school and the town have also consolidated some custodial services in
the last year, and earlier this year they agreed to share a human resources
director to oversee most town and school hiring – Now Harry Captain and Lib
Brassil Spinella, the board's two financial examiners, will evaluate the cost
and benefits of the district's printing services. The board also authorized a
third-party financial examiner to determine whether the district's printing
services should be outsourced.
- An Article from the
Hartford Courant – Flier’s Claims False – Taxpayer’s Group’s Mailing
Disputed - 06/08/07
The Taxpayer’s Group would
like to note that all information was obtained from the proposed Budget book
numbers. If anyone is misleading the public it is the Mayor who continues to
say that the mill rate will drop to 29.17 after the 5th year of the
tax phase in – a fact that has been disputed and denied by our own town
manager! Even Jim Francis will tell you that we are starting at 39.39 mills,
and increased spending as we have experienced, will continue to prevent us from
ever seeing 29.17 mills. The fact is
that spending has gone up, and there are areas of spending which should and can
be reduced. Regarding the mini-golf course, it IS an item still in the capital
improvement plan. It has not been removed. It is still being considered. It is
a shame that the Mayor will not own up to the numbers in the proposed/adopted
budget, and would instead say that WHTA is deliberately misleading the public.
It is also shameful that the Hartford Courant continues to print biased
information even after we spent time explaining our points to the reporters.
With regard to revaluation, each and every homeowner will at some point along
the 5 year phase in realize the total increases that revaluation places on
their property. We can argue the points, but the fact is your taxes are going up 6.6% this year with built in increase for
subsequent years. The fact is that spending is increasing more than what cost
of living increases are. MDC increases
will hit us, and we will continue to struggle to get the education funding from
the state that is due us. Binding arbitration has choked our ability to control
salaries and wages of our employees and nothing is being done to change that.
Has anyone quantified how much Town Hall/Board of Education consolidation
really saved us? Where is the savings? What happened to the money we saved in
snow plowing this past year? Why do we continue to hire back people who have
retired and are already receiving benefits? You will not hear that from our
town officials… instead you will hear allegations of how we are misleading the
public with numbers that the town has supplied to us! On another note, McGrath
and Aron did not “take over” the Taxpayers group (again a vicious and biased
sound bite from the Hartford Courant). There were elections dictated and
conducted in accordance with WHTA By-Laws. The membership of WHTA is
non-partisan. All WHTA can say at this point is that our town leadership must be
worried about this vote if they are attacking the taxpayers group and saying we
are deliberately misinforming the public. Even people who came to testify
at the public hearings who will be voting in favor of the budget told them
about the wasteful spending that they found in examining the budget line
items. Look at what they are spending
your tax money on, and then you decide for yourself if it is prudent or not. We
did not make up the fact that we are spending $700,000 more in garbage
collection. We did not make up the fact that the Leisure Services fund has been
running an almost 2 million dollar deficit. We did not make up the fact that
there are programs that should be self-sustaining and are not. We did not make
up the fact that they will be spending $6.84 million dollars more than last
year. You want the truth? The truth is that many
- An Article from West
Hartford News – Board of Ed cuts budget - Referendum could cause
further reductions - 06/07/07
- An Article from the Hartford
Courant – School Leaders Make Cuts: $1.84 Million
Taken From Budget – 06/06/07 - The 2007-08 school budget is now 4.24 percent more than
current spending. Susan Daly, president of the
West Hartford Education Association, told the board that there were places to
cut the budget without hurting students,
schools and programs. "I believe there is money in this budget to
[fund] almost everything you want," Daly said.
- An Article from the
Hartford Courant – Union, Board Butt Heads - Teachers Balk At Planned
Cuts – 06/02/07 –
- An Article from the
-
An Article from
- An Article from the
-
West Hartford Taxpayers Association Press Release
– 05/18/07 – WHTA's Response to the Courant and Councilman Verrengia
-
An Article from West Hartford News - Residents to
voice opinions in town-wide budget referendum - 5/17/07
-
An Article from West Hartford News - Schools face
$1.84 M in budget cuts - 5/17/07
- An Article from the
- Message from WHTA President Theresa
McGrath Regarding the Education Budget –
05/15/07
- West
Hartford Taxpayers Association Press Release – 05/15/07 – Announcing the
availability of a Tax Calculator on our website.
- An Article
from the Hartford Courant - Petition Drive Succeeds In Bringing Budget To Vote
– 05/11/07 – Petitions submitted so far
by the West Hartford Taxpayers Association contain more than 2,300 voters'
signatures, exceeding the threshold of 2,280 to trigger the townwide voting,
Town Clerk Norma Cronin said Thursday. Important: Please DO NOT throw out any petitions that you may have and
have not yet delivered to Theresa McGrath – please bring them to town hall 0n
5/11/07 at Room 400 at 7:00 PM or email president@whta.org
to say where WHTA can pick them up. Thanks to all for your help!
- National Public Radio Interview with WHTA president Theresa McGrath
and Mayor Scott Slifka – click
here for MP3 link
Or here for their
website – 05/10/07
- An Article from the
Hartford Courant – Final School Cuts Proposed - Superintendent Prepares List Of Options For Paring $1.842 Million
– 05/10/07 – potential school cuts are listed here.
- An Article from the
-
An Article from
- An Article from the
Hartford Courant - Board Absorbs Blow To Budget Additional
$1.8 Million In Cuts A Shock To Parents, School Officials – 04/26/07 -
The approved Town budget includes $118.3 million for the schools in total,
which represents $4.8 million increase, or 4.2% over the Current Education budget of $113.5
million.
- An Article from the
Hartford Courant - Council Approves Budget That
Includes Tax Hike – 04/25/07 – Budget passes with a tax increase of
less than 2 percent but will raise virtually all homeowners' property taxes 6.6 percent because of the recent revaluation. The
budget calls for a 3.48 percent increase in spending.
Council members decided unanimously to phase in the effect of revaluation over
five years, with a 25 percent increase in assessed values the first year. It
set the tax rate at 39.39 mills.
- West
Hartford Taxpayers Association Press Release – 04/24/07
- An Article from the
Hartford Advocate - The Taxman Cometh Ballot-box Showdown Looming Between
Taxpayers And Collectors In
- An Article from the
- An Article form the Hartford
Advocate - Future
Shock – 04/12/07 - West Hartford
Will Pay $700,000 More For Trash Removal Next Year, And Get Less For It.
- An Article from the
- West Hartford Taxpayers Association Press Release
– 04/07/07
- An Article from the
Hartford Courant – Budget Hearing To be On Cable -
04/07/07 – West Hartford Cable TV – Channel 5 will be televising the public
hearing on the town budget on Tuesday 4/10/07 at 5:45 PM
- An Article from the
The overall town budget would
now include:
the school spending plan
of $120.1 million budget
a proposed budget for
municipal operations of $70.7 million
and $16.5 million for capital
projects. Total proposed 2007-08 budget
is currently at $207.3 million.
- An Article from the
Current budget = $113.5
million
Approved 2007-08 budget =
$120.1 million represents a 5.86% increase over current budget.
WHTA President Theresa
McGrath said, “It’s a start”, and that more would have to be cut in order to
avoid a referendum.
- An Article from the
Hartford Courant – Cuts Are Expected In School Budget -
04/04/07 – “In his budget presentation last month, Sklarz said the district
would need to increase next year's spending by $5.44 million - or 4.8 percent -
just to carry over its current operations into next year.”
Current budget = $113.5
million
1st proposal =
$122.1 million (7.59% increase).
One previous possible
proposal = $120.8 million (6.5% increase)
Sklarz’s “carry over” budget
= $118.94 (4.8% increase)
List of some possible school
budget items that might be considered for cuts – click
here
- An Article from the
Hartford Courant – Third Hearing Set On Budget - Officials React To Religious Conflicts –
Report on the Town Council’s decision to hold a third public hearing on the
Town Budget – 04/03/07
- An Article from the
- An Article from the
Hartford Courant – Residents Criticize School
Spending Plan – Report on the Board of Education Public Hearing on the
School Budget – 03/29/07
- An Article form the
Hartford Advocate
- An Article from West
Hartford News - BOE weighs budget cuts - 03/22/07
- An article from the
Hartford Courant – School Spending Plan Refined
– Superintendent David Sklarz offered up a revised education budget plan which
trimmed the school budget by $1.3 million. – 03/21/07
Current budget = $113.5
million
1st proposed
$122.1 million (7.59% increase).
This new proposal $120.8
million (6.5% increase)
- West
Hartford Taxpayers Association Press Release – 03/15/07
- An Article form the
Hartford Advocate - West Hartford's Venture Into
The Mini-golf Business Annoys The Skatekids – 03/15/07
Proposed Mini-Golf Course is estimated at
$300,000 cost to the town.
- An Article from West
Hartford News - 8.5% increase in revenue needed to
meet expenses - 03/15/07
- An Article From The
Proposed
budget calls for 8.5% spending increase, 31.43 mills - Municipal spending would
increase about $3.9 million from the current budget, to $70.7 million. Spending
for schools would increase about $8.6 million, to about $122.1 million, under
the proposal that Sklarz presented March 6.
- An Article From The
- An Article From The West
Hartford News - Revaluation Sparks 71% Grand List Growth - 03/01/07