Newtown High School's hockey and basketball teams earned victories in January 31 action. The hockey team edged Brookfield-Bethel-Danbury 3-2, and the girls' and...
Flagpole Radio Café Founder Martin Blanco is always looking for a good fit between his special guests and the members of the local music and comedy troupe, whic...
State Senator Will Haskell recently visited Newtown manufacturer Sonics & Materials, Inc along with several students from the Advanced Manufacturing Program at ...
Nicole St Marie and David Renza were married on December 21 at Edmond Town Hall.
Carrie Lucas officiated the ceremony, which took place in the gymnasium of the ...
Adults and children alike enjoyed Newtown Parks & Recreation Department's Snow Much Fun winter celebration at Fairfield Hills on January 24. There was fire to k...
When Interfaith Partnership for Refugee Resettlement (IPRR) launched 3½ years ago, its mission was to help refugees — families that have been displaced because ...
February 17, 1995
The Junior Woman’s Club Science Discover Workshop on Saturday, February 11, attracted about 275 children eager to examine bugs, dissect owl pe...
The Board of Selectmen continued working through public reviews of select department budget requests ahead of a planned vote Monday, February 3, endorsing a pr...
The dispatchers at the Newtown Emergency Communications Center at Town Hall South, 3 Main Street, report the following fire calls and the responders:
Thursd...
DUI Warrant
Police report that after learning that they held an arrest warrant for him, Charles Sekera, 23, of Shelton, came to the police station at about...
The issue is not that our taxes will go up. The issue is that the assessment came at a time when the pandemic brought folks to Newtown in a frenzy to buy small houses (like mine <2000 sq ft). 13 houses on my street with long time residents sold in less than 2 days each with most getting more than asking. And these 'comps' were used for my assessment (42% increase). Now that the market has stalled, housing prices have dropped dramatically. We will pay increased taxes for the next 5 years until the next assessment corrects this anomaly. And wait for the car tax! Not to mention the 'R' word.
I hope that concerned folks will focus on the budget that we vote to approve each year. It is the primary determinant of the taxes we pay. Assessments are, in a way, the distribution or redistribution of that tax burden across taxpayers based on the value of their homes. Even if there were no revaluation taking place, we would be paying more tax because we voted for an increased budget. The only other offset would be a meaningful increase in businesses or new homes providing additional tax revenues. As I understand it, the mil rate will adjust based on valuations (grand list) to provide the budget we vote for. Taxes will go up until we spend less or get more revenue from new sources.
Editor's Note: It should also be pointed out that NYA (and NVAC) built their own building — which has a footprint larger than Newsylum, Parent Connection, and the Ambulance headquarters combined — that each of the latter organizations also contributed their own significant funds to their construction and improvement projects; and that Newsylum and the Parent Connection both improved existing abandoned buildings that may have otherwise continued to be unused and deteriorating.
