The Economic Development

Revenue Myth

To the Editor:

At the March meeting of the Fairfield Hills Authority, Mr Barclay of North American Realty indicated the town would receive $415,000 in real estate taxes each year by allowing a new office building to be constructed at Fairfield Hills that could house from 675 to 900 new workers. Now add the land lease payments of $400,000 or $560,000 reported by Mr Barclay and the sum per year is between $815,000 and $975,000. We are expected to believe that this sum is worth allowing a town within a town to develop at Fairfield Hills.

Suppose people who decide to move into town with a spouse and one school-age child take only 400 of the newly created jobs; others commute into Newtown. The cost per person for municipal services in the proposed 2007-2008 will be about $1,435. (Divide the proposed $38,049,719 budget by an estimated population of 26,500.) For municipal services alone, these 400 workers, plus spouse and child, will equal 1,200 persons and require $1,722,000 for municipal services. In addition, the education cost for 400 children at $9,889 (2005-2006 state report) per child would be the staggering sum of $3,955,000. Add that to municipal services and the total cost of 400 new workers moving into town with their families will be $5,677,600 yearly. That so called gold mine of $875,000 doesn’t look so rosy now.

Wait! There’s more. The Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA), created under state statues, is allowed to keep all the money it collects from fees, etc. That is the reason the chairman was able to say at the February 7 Legislative Council meeting that extending sewers to Fairfield Hills would be paid for by the WPCA, not by raising property taxes. Similarly, the Fairfield Hills Authority is empowered “…to the extent necessary, [to] expend funds available to the authority…to implement the master plan…”(Section 5 #6). The ordinance, used by the Legislative Council to create the authority, provides no procedure to require that any taxes or revenue received for operations at Fairfield Hills would flow into the town’s treasury.

Of course, all this revenue and associated costs will not occur overnight. What we always want to consider is the long- term revenue and costs. We want to welcome business and commercial activities, but we should not be subsidizing either by purchasing expensive land like Fairfield Hills for their use. Long range strategic planning would call for the preservation of as much open land as possible.

The town should be cautious about acting as a developer, but revenue from the proposed Commerce Park development would help the tax burden if it were designated to go into the general fund. The town needs to stick to what a community does best — providing police, fire, ambulance services, road maintenance, recreation and cultural activities for all ages.

Preserving Fairfield Hills for community needs makes good economic sense.

Ruby Johnson

16 Chestnut Hill Road, Sandy Hook                          March 28, 2007