Survey of Tax Increases For Neighboring Towns
Survey of tax increases for neighboring towns.
| Marlborough | 3.56% |
| Glastonbury | 2.5% |
| Lebanon | 2.09% |
| Hebron | 1.2% |
| Colchester | 1.13% |
| East Hampton | 0.38% |
| Andover | 0% |
If all else stays the same, the tax increase will be 5.75 to 7.25% for the 2010 (next years) budget vote.
If we assume this year’s 3.56% passes and next year’s increase is 6%. The total increase in taxes for the next two years will be 9.7%
editor: Andover, Lebanon added.
This is absolutely ridiculous! Where did we, one of the smallest towns amongst those listed ever come up with having higher taxes than the larger towns?
The budget is a sham!
Maybe we should have asked this question before we voted on all of the projects and now have to pay the piper!
Thanks for the info. It would be interesting to see additional info by town comparing: increase/change to mil rate, after budget mil rate, were any concessions given by town and/or BOE, are there any layoffs as result of new budget, average teacher salary, average teacher salary increase, etc. This would give us a fuller picture of the overall budget situation.
I would bet that Andover’s rate will be low too. They are pretty “frugal” over there. I recall watching an Andover Board of Selectman’s meeting on cable a few years back where they spent a couple of hours debating over whether or not to repair the transmission on a ten year old pickup truck! Of course remember that Andover and Hebron were on the NO side of several referendums (both the RHAM building project and various budget votes) where Marlborough carried the vote over their objections.
Editor: That’s tough to do as in time consuming. Some town websites are better than others. Colchester has a great site and all the information you could want is posted. Andover is on the other side of the scale with only info on last year’s budget.
I’d like to see projections reported as part of the town budgeting process, so the taxpayers see the effects of projects in coming years.
C’mon Anonymous….this budget isn’t a sham. The increase is for the children.
The Board of Finance passed out a projection for the debt at their last meeting. This year the dedt load increased by 13.60% and next year it is projected to increase by another 23.66%. That would include the additional $1.59 million for roads if it is approved this year. Without the $1.59 million the increase next year for debt would still be 15.77%. Keep in mind that this is for debt only and does not address the budgets for the school, RHAM or minicipal spending. So if you think this year is a tough one just wait until next year!
Did anyone notice that the sign in the center of town still has the May 11th date on it for the Town Meeting? Wouldn’t you have thought that it would have been updated by now to reflect the June 1st date for the next vote? Why the delay in updating the sign? After the poor handling of the May 11th Town Meeting you would have thought that the First Selectman would be taking steps to improve communication and planning for the next vote, but we can’t even get a date changed on a sign!
Andover has a 0% increase only because they took over $300,000 from surplus and applied it to this budget. Also, except for RHAM they have virtually no debt service. I spoke directly with 1st Selectman Bob Burbank yesterday. So all is not as it appears.
Vote YES on the 1st.
@BOB
Bob, I have two questions for you:
1) Would you still be voting yes if you also had to pay another $1,000 annually to the town for the sewer, on top of these tax increases?
2) Would you still be voting yes if you had to pay another $42.36 to the town annually (that’s $3.53 a month), on top of these tax increases, without getting the sewer, but knew it would help your fellow residents?
Just curious, because $1,000 is what I have to pay for the sewer, on top of the tax increase you want to vote in. If we all split the cost, it would be $42.36 a year on top of the tax increase.
I’ll vote yes when the sewer construction costs are evenly distributed, Black takes a pay cut, and the town either subjects their budget to frugality, or asks successful business owners to volunteer to do it for them.
This is a riduculous summary of information! Obviously it’s possible to skew perception by only showing information that doesn’t tell the whole story.
It is clearly a biased comparison, since it doesn’t show that 3% of the Marlborough increase is due to debt repayments for the year, which apparently can’t be avoided. That leaves just .56% increase as a result of the remainder of the towns/schools expenses. A more fair comparison of the towns would display how much debt repayment is included in each (if any) and how much is coming from the other components of the overall budget.
It is unfair to blame any of the increase on the kids/school, since the school is in fact presenting a budget that is a DECREASE of -1.87%. Poor communication during the past projects regarding the financial impact on the town for each is what should be blamed here. What has been done is done though, so now it’s time to “pay the piper” for those projects. It is very difficult to see taxes rise and pay those bills, but we can’t turn this town into an undesireable place to live in order to offset the debts incurred in the past.
VOTE YES!!
@Tell the Whole Story
Send me a post telling your side of the issue.
@Tell the Whole Story
Other towns are dealing with debt.
A dollar spent on debt is the same as a dollar spent on programs.
There is no difference to my wallet whether it goes to ballet lessons, town debt, credit cards, or lifeguards for Bliss park.
The question is who can spent my money better, me or the government. Considering I’ve been watching a perfectly good road in the center of town moved 50 feet to the right, the answer is clear.
Oh by the way, the plan is to buy the antique store across the new road and razed it, lose the tax money and put a bypass in. The bypass comes out by Marlborough Pizza and diverts all that serious traffic congestion that plagues the one stop light town of Marlborough.
hmmmmm, will land be opened for development with that new road?
To Soccer Dad, David Durel and all:
Yes, all towns (except for Andover) are dealing with debt, but after investigation on all of the town websites and a call to Andover, I can confirm that we are the only town with an INCREASE in debt. We are also the only town with a DECREASE to the school budget. I’m providing the details of my findings below.
Tax Increase Town Op Local BOE Debt Services
Marlborough 3.56% 1.68% (-1.87%) 13.60%
Glastonbury 2.50% 1.83% 3.69% (-2.64%)
Lebanon 2.09% 1.21% 2.11% (-14.16%)
Hebron 1.20% .91% 1.96% (-3.54%)
Colchester 1.13% 1.65% 1.55% (-3.92%)
East Hampton .78% 2.53% 1.48% (-9.33%)
Andover 0.00% decrease 1.90% none
As stated previously by Bob, Andover’s increase is flat since they have surplus (from too high of mill rate last year) and a return of funds from the school which is offseting the increase they’d otherwise be seeing.
As I stated previously, our debt amounts to 3% of our increase. If it wasn’t for that, we’d be looking at a .56% increase which would put us near the bottom of the comparison list above.
My point here is to make it clear that the source of our increase which looks high is completely due to the debt. The BOE is constantly under attack, and not rightly so, which is made obvious by the cuts they are making which other towns are not. The town debt is 100% responsible for the mess we’re dealing with this year and will be the source of what comes next year. I’m sure that if we had no debt, nobody would even flinch about a .56% increase, even after comparing the increase to what other neighboring towns are seeing.
I couldn’t agree more that there should be little or no pay increases given to the town employees or school employees. But, I understand that most of the increases are bound by contracts which can’t be changed at this point. Any that are not, should be forfeited. My hope is that the town and BOE all work very hard during this upcoming year to see that the ’10-’11 budget includes NO raises. That will not alone offset next year’s debt burden, but it would ease the blow a little.
It’s no secret that many of us are in a very tight financial position these days. It isn’t easy to face the debt that has arrived, especially after the way our taxes have increased in the past 5-10 years. I feel we were badly misinformed about the future financial impact of the projects we’re now paying for. Nobody could have known what our economy would be like when it was time to pay up, but it appears that there was a lack of proper forecasting of our debt repayment for the projects when combined. That said, we voted through these various projects during better times, and unfortunately now’s the time that we need to find ways to pay the bills – just like what can happen with spending in our own homes. I whole-heartedly feel that it is critical for the town to trim the budgets as much as possible, but not at the expense of the things that are helping our homes to retain their values reasonably well in this tough time.
Let’s see this upcoming year put toward finding ways to increase the tax revenue. Fill the empty business locations with new businesses, look at what can be developed on open and available land – at the business owner’s expense, etc.
Let’s also vote to see some new faces on the BOF when a few terms are up for renewal thsi fall. The current BOF clearly has very poor communication and does not know how to work together to achieve a goal. We need to see some individuals there who will look out for the best interest of the town as a whole, both now and in the future, and have good communication and teamwork skills as well.
My apologies, my formatting on the table of the town comparisons disappered when I hit submit… I hope you all can still undertand the data. I’ll re-enter it differntly if there are questions about it.