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Winsted’s Proposed Budget
By Joe Cadrain, Winsted
An all-day referendum on our proposed budget will be held on Saturday, June 1. The passage of this budget will require that $17,264,298 be raised by property taxes. Other monies for the total budget of $29,206,981 will come from the State of Connecticut and auto taxes. The number of property tax bills will be approximately 5,400, which means that the average property owner will be paying approximately $3,200 in taxes, which is a $280 increase above last year's average. Remember: property revaluation is underway as you read this, which normally results in increased taxes for the vast majority of all taxpayers. Increases in assessed value of as much as 60% have been reported by some Highland Lake property owners.
Are we a rich town? On May 13, an editorial in the Republican-American [Worth a closer look] listed towns receiving 35% or more of their funding from the state. The list includes Hartford and New Haven, receiving more than 50% funding from the state, plus Waterbury, Bridgeport, New Britain and 40 other towns receiving 35% or more—including Winsted. The nearest town to Winsted on this list is Plymouth. I’ll let you decide the meaning of this information, yet I do not feel many of you will conclude that Winsted is doing just fine. The biggest growth in Winsted is government, and that is not a good sign when business and population are decreasing.
Education continues its feeding frenzy of consuming wealth. Two news stories of late were revealing. On November 7, 2001, the Register-Citizen had an article called "Winchester schools spending up." The article stated that the Winchester Public Schools spent $2,000 more per pupil above its Educational Reference Group. (Reference Group is a state category of schools with similar statistics and profiles.) The other article, "Union heads defend municipal salaries," was in the Sunday Republican on April 28, 2002; it listed the salaries of many school administrators in the Winsted school system, including a school principal who is receiving a $13,938 raise and a school superintendent getting a $13,000 raise.
Proponents of maintaining the status quo in our education system are now pushing for increasing the influence of the socialist movement in the system. One new move is an attempt to have the state pay the full cost of education. One should ask, who pays the cost of state government? How much more would the bigger bureaucracy cost us? In simple terms, our local tax bill would decrease while our state taxes soar to new highs. Local boards of education would be as good as non-existent, as they would control nothing. Another move is to force home-schooled children into the public school system. Personally I feel the only hope for improving student education and controlling cost would be school choice, including private and religious schools. Competition would encourage improvement in all schools that want to remain competitive.
The ultimate questions we need to ask ourselves concerning the proposed budget are: is the tax increase justified, and can we afford the increase? We then should make sure we vote at the referendum on Saturday, June 1. Remember that the Town of Winchester is our largest employer, and their employees will support this budget by voting on June 1, therefore you need to do the same. Spread the word to your neighbors and friends that we need to defeat this budget by voting NO! If you cannot get to the polls, absentee ballots are available from the Town Clerk's Office; the telephone number is 860-738-6963.
Join me on June 1 by voting NO! Have a nice day.
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