Press Release
March 15, 2007
For Immediate Release
CONTACT: Judy Aron, Vice President of
860-523-7257
The West Hartford Taxpayers
Association met on 3/14/07 at Town Hall and drafted this statement:
“The
The President of the
Taxpayers Association tried to approach the Town Council with information
regarding Proposition 2 ½ on two separate occasions, but they were not
responsive and found technical excuses for not applying it to our own town
budget. Members of WHTA have also been
in touch with State legislators regarding their efforts to implement
Proposition 2 ½ for
municipalities from the state. The WHTA also plans to keep citizens updated as
to how those initiatives are doing.
The feeling was that town
spending has got to be put under control. There has got to be restraint by our
leaders. If salaries and other mandated expenses have gone up then we must make
cuts elsewhere, or at least initiate no new programs or freeze hiring of staff.
Residents
at the meeting thought that the extremely high budget was proposed on purpose
so that Town officials could posture for cutting taxes. Some people said, “Why didn’t they just come
out with a reasonable budget to begin with? They have been working on this
since January. It looks like they say 8.5% so that they can cut it back to 6%
and make it look like they are being fair.
It’s the same old game they play every year.”
Everyone in attendance was
made aware of the current proposed budget that was presented to the Town
Council on 3/13/07 by Town manager James Francis. The proposed budget called for an increase of
8.5% which included a 7.6% in the education budget alone. These budget increases were absolutely
unacceptable to all taxpayers who were in attendance at the WH Taxpayer
Association meeting. Despite the fact that the mill rate is expected to drop
because of revaluation from 46.19 to 31.43, the WH Taxpayers Association still
sees that as an exorbitant mill rate.
Vice President, Judy Aron
said, “ We are glad to see our property values go
up. That is wonderful news. The issue at hand though is the spending, and
the spending amount which represents the budget is what drives the mill rate
and essentially determines our individual tax bill. Right now that proposed
mill rate of 31.43 represents a huge increase in tax for many taxpayers when applied
to their new assessment. That is just unacceptable.“
Information on the website
for the taxpayer group shows that :
Historical
West Hartford Tax increases:
2001
- 4.0%
2002
- 5.6%
2003
- 5.6%
2004
- 6.3%
2005
- 4.3%
2006
- 6.0%
+ 31.8% in the past 6 years
alone!
Proposed
increase for 2007-08 is an additional 8.5%
Historical
2002-03
-
7.18%
90.96 Million
2003-04
- 4.83%
95.35
Million
2004-05
-
5.75%
100.84 Million
2005-06
-
5.66%
106.55 Million
2006-07
- 6.51%
113.48 Million
29.93 % in the past 5 years alone ! Averaging 6%
for the past 5 years !
According to the Superintendent’s budget
presentation, this year (2007-08) they are proposing a 7.59% increase
! (That’s 122.10 million dollars more!)
Many
people in attendance were very upset that communication with Town Officials has
been so quiet and limited. Apparently
no one is allowed to speak to the budget issues except at public hearings and
many people in general expressed a feeling of being shut out of the process
until the public hearings are held.
Attendees that had gone for assessment appeals were also very unhappy with
the treatment and responses they received from the process.
The West Hartford Taxpayers
Association set up several committees, and will be doing some outreach to those
families not easily reached via email to inform them of budget update
information. They have members who will
be examining the presented budgets of the Town as well as the Board of
Education. The next full monthly meeting
of the WHTA is scheduled for April 23, 2007 at 7:00 PM in Room 400 at the
The
West Hartford Taxpayers Association is non-partisan. WHTA is an association
dedicated to the proposition that Town Government can be operated efficiently
to provide needed services at a fair cost to the Citizens of West Hartford. It
has been in existence since 1933. For additional information visit the West Hartford
Taxpayers Association web site at http://whta.org/ or contact WHTA President Theresa
McGrath at president@whta.org or
860-570-1203, or WHTA Vice-President
Judy Aron at vpresident@whta.org or
call 860-523-7257
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