A Tax Relief Proposal

To the Editor:

It is apparent that there are a number of concerned residents in Newtown who want to provide excellence in educational, recreational, and municipal town services. The usual Newtown taxpayers have sought to have those areas serve as beacons to draw others to come live in Newtown and to share in its many benefits. That their goal has been attained is attested to by the increasing numbers of people who are making Newtown their home.

The excellence that is Newtown was arrived at by people contributing in many ways, such as serving on committees, serving as firefighters, as ambulance personnel, as municipal employees, as helpers in the schools, as workers with the elderly, as taxpayers. In a community it is important to help provide for all citizens throughout the generations, the young, the middle aged, and the old. It is important to do so without in any way demeaning any of them. All members of the community should be encouraged to remain in Newtown as important community members. As the years pass, one way to do this is to lessen their load as taxpayers as is rightfully done for veterans and, more recently, for our volunteer firefighters. In appreciation for the usual Newtown taxpayers, I suggest that after a person has paid real estate taxes to the town for 25 years, then for each additional year the person lives in town the person’s tax bill is reduced by one percent. For example, when the time spent paying taxes reaches the 26th year, the person would pay 99 percent of his/her real estate tax bill. Even after 50 years of paying real estate taxes in town, the person would be paying 50 percent of his/her tax bill, if he/she should be so fortunate as to obtain that length of residence in Newtown.

This system of taxation would shift a percentage more of the taxes to those in the middle stream of the generations. Fortunately, such a shift would occur when those members would be enjoying their most productive years. The approach would allow for maintaining the care of the young, the continual constructive growth of the community, and the gradual reduction of the burden of the long-term contributors to Newtown. It would require no means test and participation would be completely voluntary.

James A. Bergeron

Brushy Hill Road, Newtown                                       March 14, 2004