Joan Coe
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Platinum Board Member
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Board of Selectmen -August 28, 2006 - 2006/08/28 20:11
Board of Selectmen – August 28, 2006
I am shocked that we are here tonight to revisit a fiscally irresponsible project. Why are the taxpayers always the ones responsible for bailing out Institutions and Businesses? Who gets the tax breaks, we the people? NO! The International Skating Center is losing hundreds of thousands dollars a year and First Selectman Tom Vincent gives them a tax break. Businesses get thousands of dollars in abatements disguised as economic development. First Selectman Tom Vincent allows town employees to live in town-owned homes rent free leaving the taxpayers to pay thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Why was the Golf Restaurant allowed to walk away from their contract, with thousands of dollars owed the town? First Selectman Tom Vincent was jubilant when he was given a $12,000 a year raise, never questioning the implications of this extravagant increase that will enhance his pension for life.. Ethel Walker, Westminster, Masters and St. Mary’s schools, is tax free including all the homes occupied by their staff. Ensign Bickford has developed most of their land and infrastructure and they are assessed as open space. Now there is a proposal for Senior Citizen discounts on property taxes. How can the Board of Selectmen propose a Senior Citizen tax reduction and then encumber them with purchasing the Ethel Walker property? Volunteer firefighters, ambulance drivers and Emergency Medical Technicians have all been given tax breaks. Many of the promoters from the music festivals have not paid the full amount of their contractual obligations. All that lost revenue has to be paid by the taxpayers. Who pays, we pay! There are too many sweetheart deals made by First Selectman Tom Vincent and we the taxpayers are asked to give more and more.
Why are the taxpayers being asked to bail out Ethel Walker on their inability to enhance their endowments? According to State health records it appears that there is nitrate contamination in the Stratton Brook Aquifer. In a recent letter to the Hartford Courant, Kevin North, a member of the Board of Finance stated, “There are well over 500 homes currently in the state-designated EWS aquifer-58 on Longview Drive itself.” If the protection of the aquifer is the reason for spending $13 million, why hasn’t the water company bought the land to preserve their water supply? Has anyone contacted Aquarion? Why hasn’t the alumni and the present student body of the Ethel Walker School been asked to donate money to increase the school’s endowment? Why haven’t the abutters to this land donated money to protect their neighborhood from development? The cost of this property is in violation of the 7% debt policy adhered to by the Board of Finance.
The taxpayers will soon be asked to pay millions of dollars for road reconstruction, additions to schools, payment for increased overhead expenditures from past projects and might have to pay millions of dollars to CHFA to bail out the Eno Farms Affordable housing complex that is presently in default of their payments. There are two Heart and Hypertension payments for Sgt. Brian Logan at $107,172 and $139,323.60 for Lt. John Mendela This amount comes out of the town’s general fund.. There are hundreds of thousands dollars needed to improve and maintain the Simsbury Farms Complex It would be fiscally irresponsible for the town to encumber the taxpayers with millions of dollars of bonding for years to come for the Ethel Walker property when there are many more pressing priorities that have to be met. We can no longer have a tax and spend mentality. Million dollar homes increase revenues. I would like to thank the Board of Finance members who voted for fiscally responsible spending and defended their debt policy by rejecting this proposal. I urge this board to reject the Ethel Walker proposal. It is not the taxpayers’ responsibility to Keep the Woods!! Why can’t the town take over the property by eminent domain?
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