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A Reverse Robin Hood

Clinton taxes are toxic. Taking a larger dosage won’t make things better. It’ll make them worse. With a 2017-’18 10 percent tax increase and the highest mill rate on the shoreline, heaping on another four percent increase will lengthen Clinton’s competitive disadvantage. The shoreline’s lowest mill rate (Old Saybrook) is going lower even without a revaluation.

Clearly lowering taxes, though rare, can and has been done by other communities, and controlling taxes is imperative for a healthy vibrant community. Clinton’s taxes are out of control even as taxpayers defeated budget referendums consistently for a decade.

Property taxes are like a reverse Robin Hood, disproportionately and unfairly gouging low-, middle-, and fixed-income households’ meager earnings. They complicate personal decisions about paying for food, medicine, and heat.

High taxes stunt commercial development. Just count the empty storefronts on Main Street.

High property taxes depress home values, which are most families’ single biggest investment. They make saving for college nearly impossible.

Those urging readers to vote “Yes” are the same voices that told them a new school would be more cost-effective and that the old school location would transform into Clinton’s “golden goose.” But the 10 percent tax increase strangled the Mill Pond Development in its cradle and the cost of heating and maintaining the new school drives energy and maintenance costs higher.

As the enrollment decline accelerates and state aid deteriorates, the “Yes” voters expect taxpayers to do all of the adjusting to reality and to absorb ever-higher taxes. How much would taxes have to increase for them to join the “No” voters? Is only the sky the limit?

The best thing for Clinton’s future is to lower, or at least flatten, taxes. Truly civic-minded voters who have Clinton’s best interest and future at heart will vote “No” on May 9.

Kirk Carr

Clinton

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