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Needless and Callous

On Feb. 28, Clinton’s Board of Selectmen met and all but rubber-stamped the Board of Education’s $36 million budget, trimming a mere $76,500 from the capital budget. Overall that reflects a $1.7 million or five percent increase as enrollment continues a steep decline and state aid continues to be cut.

The fact is no matter what, the school administration expects to increase the operating budget forever, no matter the loss in enrollment, cuts in state aid, or, heaven forbid, a large budget surplus the previous year—something it works very hard to avoid.

Next Monday, March 12, Clinton’s Board of Finance (BOF) will meet to finalize both the town and education budgets to send to public hearing on Wednesday, April 11. In reality, little, if anything, happens as a result of public input at the April public hearing. Sadly, the meeting next week is a special meeting and no public comment is included on the agenda and cannot be added, but no doubt at the public hearing someone will ask where the public was during the budget process.

The bottom line is that if the BOF fails to cut the proposed $615,809 or 3.5 percent town budget increase or the $1,732,870 or five percent education increase, it’ll compound last year’s 10.2 percent tax increase with an additional 4.8 percent increase to 31.36 mills. (That assumes no change to the Grand List.)

When the tax collector and tax assessor appeared at a Board of Finance workshop, they reported the anger they increasingly encounter from desperate taxpayers. The chronic failures of budget referendums since 2010 are symptomatic.

Property taxes are the second most regressive tax paid by Connecticut taxpayers. Increasing property taxes year after year, while the population isn’t growing or prospering and enrollment continues to decline, is needless and callous.

Kirk Carr

Clinton

Kirk Carr (R) serves as an alternate on the Board of Finance.