To The Editor:

Are you feeling the pain of skyrocketing costs? I am. My grocery bill has doubled. Gas prices are shocking. Electricity? OMG. And property taxes are chopping a hole in what’s left over. I thought I was comfortably middle class looking forward to a comfortable retirement. Maybe not.

Connecticut towns rely heavily on property taxes and fees to pay for school and local services. Did you know that Connecticut has the second-highest property taxes in the country? This tax approach puts an unfair burden on the middle class and the poor. The middle class tends to have most of its wealth invested in their homes. Connecticut already has a wealth tax; It’s just a wealth tax on the not so wealthy.

The wealthy pay a much smaller fraction of their personal income in local taxes than the rest of us. If you make over $1 million, less than 1.5% of your income goes to property taxes and under 1% to sales and excise tax. If you earn less than $100,000, you are paying about 4.5% of your income in property taxes and around 4% in sales and excise tax.

This doesn’t make sense. The wealthy benefit from local services the same way the rest of us do. They drive on the same roads, play in the same parks, use the same public buildings and institutions and rely on the same police and fire services. And here in Newtown, at least in the past, they would have sent their kids to the same schools. Our schools were great. Now we can’t afford to keep them that way.

Our towns should not be forced to keep raising property taxes to pay for essential services. Changing the state income tax structure could solve this problem. The wealthy also pay less in relative taxes at the state level. If they paid an equitable share in state income tax, the state would have much more money to distribute to towns and property taxes could go down.

Governor Ned Lamont has consistently suppressed all attempts at tax reform during his eight years in office. Governor Lamont is very rich and tax reform goes against his personal interests. If you want something different, vote in the August 11 Democratic primary. Josh Elliott is running against Ned Lamont for governor. Unlike Ned Lamont, Josh Elliott has advocated for tax reform during his ten years as a state representative. Your vote this August can make a direct difference in your day-to-day life.

If you are unaffiliated because you don’t like either party or politics, that is understandable. In this case, maybe hold your nose and do something meaningful for yourself with your vote. You can register as a Democrat until July 24th and vote in the primary for Josh Elliott. You can always switch back to unaffiliated later.

Anne Renner

Sandy Hook