Simsbury Suffering 'Perfect Storm' Of Revenue Woes

It is easy to govern when the dollars are flowing in. Now is the time for Glassman and other town officials to realize they need to buckle down and manage their way out of this mess some of which is their own doing).

Glassman:

You are an indiot. Across the last decade, your town budget has doubled. It cannot all be blamed on state mandates and teacher salaries. You have also expanded city services, services you and others wanted, but that town residents didn't need. Towns and cities in Connecticut are spending too much money. Period. And you want to authorize MORE TAXES? What is so painful about cutting town jobs? Whack them today. It's not painful at all. We just can't pay.

If ever there were a time to overhaul the punitive property tax system in the Northeast, it is NOW!
How many homeowners just might face foreclosure because they cannot pay their property taxes?
Simsbury and Brookfield are NOT unique. All of the Northeast states are in a mess!

Wealthy towns such as Simsbury should have a surplus set aside when times were good. If all was spent (or wasted) then someone was not doing their job. Town expect homeowners to pay their taxes even in a down market and rarely give property owners relief when really needed. This isn't the first downturn and there should have been plans to provide basic services without raising taxes.

WHERE IS THE SURPLUS wrote:

Wealthy towns such as Simsbury should have a surplus set aside when times were good. If all was spent (or wasted) then someone was not doing their job. Town expect homeowners to pay their taxes even in a down market and rarely give property owners relief when really needed. This isn't the first downturn and there should have been plans to provide basic services without raising taxes.

where is YOUR surplus? you should have set some aside for if times are bad instead of depending on the towns. The towns and schools wont budge much, so start saving up.

It is amazing that CT is in the top 5 of state income tax, sales taxes, property taxes, gasoline taxes, and state employee pensions. It still is not enough money and that it has amassed a $6 billion budget deficit. It could be much worse for Simsbury. The State through their ECS (Education Cost Sharing) formulas gives Towns very little in education dollars compared to what is taken in by state income taxes. The person who should be on the hot seat should be Jody Rell. She has not done a good job in managing this state. She let the legislature walk all over her and now the state is about to pay for it. If you think the $6 billion is a big dollar wait to the numbers come out on the state pension deficit. Oh man.....

Waste wrote:

Glassman:
You are an indiot. Across the last decade, your town budget has doubled. It cannot all be blamed on state mandates and teacher salaries. You have also expanded city services, services you and others wanted, but that town residents didn't need. Towns and cities in Connecticut are spending too much money. Period. And you want to authorize MORE TAXES? What is so painful about cutting town jobs? Whack them today. It's not painful at all. We just can't pay.

If I remember correctly, Glassman has only been first selectman since 2006, so Simsbury's budget growing since 1998 cannot be blamed entirely on her, either.

There is no fat to cut, Simsbury is down to the bone. Relax, these problems will solve themselves because it is going to get much worse. Our empty economy has been exposed and no one has a clue how to fix this mess.

We will all just have to do without.
What a concept.
Especially for Simsbury...

NB you are correct. Vincent let his employees dictate what THEY wanted, for example the new Taj Majhal they call a library, and where did that get us? A huge empty space that's barely used just so Susan Bullock could build a monument to herself. Get those top administrators out of there and send the dead wood packing. The town is too top heavey

First, Ms. Glassman you wanted this job so bad that you basically stabbed another Democratic person in the back to run for First Selecman. Well, now you have the job because you could not get LT. Gov so deal with it.

Second, the property taxes in Simsbury are in the stratosphere! The boards did nothing to attract business to town for years. Only drive them away. If they did their job it would have been a little easier going now.

Third, the School budget can certainly be cut a little to help out.

Fourth, Simsbury is a great town to live in, retirees should be made more welcome by allowing prorated property taxes for them. It would balance out without having to add to the population of the school system.

That's my rant for now.

Townie wrote:

NB you are correct. Vincent let his employees dictate what THEY wanted, for example the new Taj Majhal they call a library, and where did that get us? A huge empty space that's barely used just so Susan Bullock could build a monument to herself. Get those top administrators out of there and send the dead wood packing. The town is too top heavey

The Town voted for the library.

Not sure about past town employees. I think they are unionized therefore, pay increases are by bargaining.

farmington wonderer wrote:

<quoted text>
where is YOUR surplus? you should have set some aside for if times are bad instead of depending on the towns. The towns and schools wont budge much, so start saving up.

I don't know about anyone else, but MY surplus was spent paying taxes!

Waste wrote:

Glassman:
You are an indiot. Across the last decade, your town budget has doubled. It cannot all be blamed on state mandates and teacher salaries. You have also expanded city services, services you and others wanted, but that town residents didn't need. Towns and cities in Connecticut are spending too much money. Period. And you want to authorize MORE TAXES? What is so painful about cutting town jobs? Whack them today. It's not painful at all. We just can't pay.

Not sure what services you are talking about. All Simsbury has is Police as a service.

Think way out of the box- every town in CT is duplicating services. Every town has vacant homes and people in need.Com e up with statewide service sharing, innovative new programs where the state owns housing and contracts with local businesses to provide services and supplies to the indigent, seniors, etc Make it all work with subsidized mass transit- buses can roll today! We need a stste meeting. lots of good managers in CT can work towards recovery

As a small business owner in Simsbury, I can tell you this much: the town of Simsbury does not care about their own, nor do they do anything to encourage remaining in Simsbury. Ms. Glassman and others have alot to be ashamed about, this is only the tip of the iceburg.

How about a localized version of the "Obama Plan"? Allow Simsbury to collect additional taxes on any resident making over $250,000 a year. There are plenty of those folks living in Simsbury.

Lyle Wray has given you the answer- end your isolation, cooperate, be part of Hartford County. don't keep trying to fix your broken system- start with one that can work going forward in today's reality

The below is a cut and paste from another article on the CT State budget problems and REll but it applies here - but politicians don't appear to be ready to confront the truth of a problem they let get out of control...see below...
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The problem statement is in the article - "50,000 State Workers" who have benifits and pensions that sky-rocket beyond anything in the private work place including corporate workers. These UNIONS, STATE, CITY, Teachers, UAW - you name it - they have become worse than the monsters that spawned them a 50-75yrs ago. They have indeed become a burden on society and in the case of public unions, they are killing taxpayers with their unreasonable demands and contracts - and you know what?- I am covinced they could care less - as long as they get what they want - they warp their thinking in to actually thinking it is fair - I for one have had enough - this was one reason I voted to give REFERENDUM to the people of CT so we could rise up and stop this maddness - but that went down at the polls and we will continue to pay this awful price - chasing our tails for ever increasing TAXES to support GOVT that should be working to support us. Our politicians are cowards and have not stood up once and pointed to the ELEPHANT in the living room - these benifits and pensions are way out of line - now they are by law supposed to be funded fully - who are these workers that they get something on the backs of taxpayers that normal taxpayers don't get anything close too? Are they a supposed superior class? What is the justifcation in this day and age? This is a major ploble in CT and across the country. Don't look to Washington for help - they are a part of the problem -they have set the bad example be putting in to law 15K a MONTH pension for anyone elected just once to Congress - and their gonna fix our problem????!!!!?? What an unfair mess!! People - know the truth and stand up and fight stop this travesty

Paying a motor vehicle registration surcharge is just another property tax to the town but using another name. Sorry, but it will likely increase the overall tax burden for citizens.

Simsbury rarely turns down a budget at referendum. Over the last decade, 69% of other CT towns have had a lower annualized effective property tax rate increase than Simsbury.