Addressing The Cause Of Rising Taxes

To the Editor:

The Bee hit the mark a couple weeks ago when it “Dropped Ink” on the subject of the rising cost of operating Newtown.

There is a radical problem with the town’s budget process: spending is uncontrollable because of the enormous taxpayer subsidy for continued residential development, in the form of a terrific school system. Like the interstate highway system, which effectively subsidized the development of the automobile and trucking industries in the US, quality public schools subsidize the development of suburban housing. Look at the numbers. What is your tax bill once you deduct the value of your children’s education at $10,000 each? How much smaller would your mortgage have to be without that money? How much less house would you be able to afford? The implications for residential development are obvious.

Municipal acquisition of land that will otherwise be used for residential development, or acquisition of the development rights to such tracts, is the only alternative to the current trajectory: increasing student population, leading to the need for new capital expenditures for schools and a steadily rising Board of Education operating expense; more financial pressure on our fixed-income seniors; more crowded streets; heavier demand on other basic services like police, fire, ambulance, and eventually water and sewers; more road building, maintenance, and snow-removal; more professional staff to administer the growing business of running the town; less money for other segments of our community such as our seniors, parks and recreation, and the arts; vanishing open spaces.

By addressing this dilemma at its root, we can also achieve ancillary objectives that will further enhance the quality of life in Newtown. We have both the responsibility and the wherewithal to embark on the path to resolving this controversy. Best of all, it makes sense on the bottom line.

The Bee has served us well in pointing the way. I’m for heading in that direction.

Chris McArdle

Bennetts Bridge Road, Sandy Hook                           March 15, 2004