West Hartford Taxpayers Association

Press Release

May 18, 2007

For Immediate Release

CONTACT: Judy Aron, Vice President of West Hartford Taxpayers Association

                     860-523-7257

WHTA's RESPONSE TO THE COURANT AND COUNCILMAN VERRENGIA

The Hartford Courant, 05/18/07, reported that West Hartford Town Councilman Joseph Verrengia held a press conference to announce his decision to change his party affiliation, and that in doing so he partially attributed his decision to the efforts of the West Hartford Taxpayers Association to limit tax increases.  As a non-partisan association comprised of members of all parties, as well as many unaffiliated voters, the WHTA is concerned with how council members act, not what titles they hold.  We support all elected officials who share our concerns about prudent budgeting.  We are disheartened by Mr. Verrengia’s attempt to blame his personal political decisions on our efforts.  By making such claims, is Mr. Verrengia indicating that his new party opposes efforts to control tax increases?  We certainly hope this is not the case, and we hope that that does not represent the platform of the majority Democratic Party. 

Our members have expressed concerns about all of our elected officials on both sides of the aisle, because they all voted for unreasonably high budget increases this year.  Out of all of our political representatives on the Board of Education and the Town Council, we acknowledge the efforts of Jack Darcey (D), Chair of the Board of Education, who publicly stated his concerns for the less fortunate taxpayers who simply cannot continue to afford to live in West Hartford with high budget increases, and Clare Kindall (D) who advocated strongly to the schools superintendent to distinguish the “Need to Haves vs. Want to Haves” in the budget.  Harry Captain (D) and Tom Fiorentino (R) finally came around to ask the Administration if they could reconsider the already agreed upon 5 year 4%+ annual increases in salaries, healthcare and retirement benefits. We applaud their courage to make that suggestion.

Recently, Mr. Verrengia fought to obtain the title of minority leader.  Now, he is trading that in for another title.  When the WHTA approached Mr. Verrengia and the town council leadership to discuss tax issues, their response was to stonewall, and to thwart any attempt to work with the council.  The town administration, including the town manager and town clerk, has been much easier to work with.  If some council members thought that they could ignore us and that we would go away, they have greatly miscalculated the high level of dissatisfaction and concern by voters of all parties toward taxation and management in our town.

As for Mr. Verrengia’s “springboard” comment; for too long the West Hartford Town Council has been used as a springboard by ambitious politicians who often seem more concerned with advancing their political careers, and their outside jobs, rather than fully addressing the serious, long-term financial issues that the town faces.  Through his position on the council, Mr. Verrengia obtained an appointment to the Metropolitan District Commission. Recently. MDC member towns approved the Clean Water Project, a large sewer improvement project which will likely cost close to $2 Billion.  Taxpayers in West Hartford will bear a disproportionately high portion of these costs.  Even if one acknowledges the merits of the project, it still leaves the question of how to pay for it.  In a few years, these additional MDC costs alone will account for annual budget increases that far exceed the annual increases that the town is currently struggling with, and yet no one appears to be taking steps to deal with this impending fiscal crisis, either through state or federal aid or some other option.  William DiBella, who is the chairman of the MDC, and would be expected to sign the bonds it will issue, is currently on trial in federal court, facing fraud charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and yet neither Mr. Verrengia nor any one else on the MDC has called for Mr. DiBella to be removed.  How do they expect taxpayers, or potential bond purchasers, to have faith in an organization and a project that is being supervised by a man whom the SEC believes committed fraud?  Where is the leadership on that issue?  Do they have any idea how serious this is?  Mr. Verrengia is a member of the West Hartford Police Department.  It has been noted that since the Clean Water Project will involve a large amount of work on streets over the course of many years, it will require police officers (including Mr. Verrengia), working substantial overtime guarding worksites.  Overtime for police also increases pension benefits.  More than a few people have questioned whether this issue has affected Mr. Verrengia’s decision-making at the MDC.  We thought that Mr. Verrengia should be aware that people have raised this concern.  If he has an answer to these charges, then we would like to hear it.

The WHTA believes that West Hartford, as a community, should harness the intelligence, determination and influence of all its residents for the benefit of the town, and be a model to other towns in our state.  Mr. Verrengia’s decision to change his political party is by nature a purely political act.  As the Courant noted, Mr. Verrengia’s maneuver was made possible since at least one Democratic incumbent on the council will not be seeking reelection.  Political maneuvering and posturing by town council members is a distraction at a time when we cannot afford distractions.  Voters in West Hartford are intelligent enough to draw their own conclusions about what political benefits Mr. Verrengia will obtain by doing this. 

The WHTA has been trying to communicate with Mr. Verrengia for months.  Since he has refused to meet with us, either formally or informally, we do not know what his views toward us are based on, or who has been advising him on these issues.  We would prefer to communicate directly with Mr. Verrengia, rather than through the press, but his stubbornness leaves us with no alternative.  Can we please stop playing political games and worrying about titles, and deal with the real issues; like TAXES?  Mr. Verrengia, we are still waiting to hear from you, and you are still invited to attend all of our meetings, no matter what your party affiliation is.  We also again invite our Mayor and all our elected officials, who so far have ignored invitations to meet with us.  Our next monthly meeting is, Wednesday, May 23, 2007, in Room 314 of Town Hall, from 7 – 9 pm.  We will be presenting our calculator to help people calculate their taxes for next year, and estimate their future taxes.  Please come.  We ask all citizens and our Town Representatives to work together with us, not against us. We all pay taxes and we are all in this together.

The West Hartford Taxpayers Association is non-partisan 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.