To the Editor:

Congratulations to Jack Carlson for raising questions about the town’s recent reevaluation and the tax consequences in his July 20th letter (“Reval Botched”) to The Newtown Bee. I wholeheartedly support his request for The Bee to investigate the process with those responsible. More folks are now realizing the effects of the reevaluation in their increased taxes.

My assessment went up 51 percent and although the mill rate went down 24 percent, my taxes (not including cars, etc) went up 14 percent, an increase of over $1,300 — a far cry from the 1.29 “average” The Newtown Bee estimated. (Considering my taxes fluctuated about $100 in the last five years, you can understand my surprise!)

I am certainly aware of the increasing costs faced by the town to generate the funds to provide the necessary services we depend on but using an inequitable reevaluation process to achieve this is wrong.

I understand that residential values have increased since the last assessment, but so too have business property values so that to target the residential segment to make up any perceived shortfall in the business segment seems grossly unfair. As Mr Carlson points out in his letter, the valuation increase for businesses was eight percent vs up to 45 percent for residential. This shifting of the tax burden to the residential segment is unjust.

Those responsible for this outcome need to review their procedure and rectify the inequities caused, since our future taxes will be based on this new assessment and will probably increase with new mill rates.

For this reason, I am requesting The Bee and any other appropriate sources to investigate the recent reevaluation process and its impact on the tax rolls and citizens of Newtown.

Walter E. Stark

Newtown

Editor’s Note: The Newtown Bee does not originate data similar to that referred to by the letter writer. The estimated average property tax increase was reiterated by Newtown Finance Director Robert Tait during numerous public meetings and related presentations. The Bee then reports details from those meetings including related information provided by local officials.