HARTFORD— Like all other institutions of higher education across the country, the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) recently announced it is na...
At The Newtown Bee, we are back at work on articles for our readers’ education and enjoyment, and remind you that subscribers get the first — and sometimes excl...
To ensure its community members are able to access the essential goods they need, Stop & Shop is launching same-day Pickup & Delivery service beginning on Wedne...
As the first day of June arrived, Newtown residents who may have gotten a little shaggier — or grayer — over the past couple of months without professional hair...
Following a growing chorus of reactions on the Minneapolis death of George Floyd, including those from Newtown's First Selectman and Police Chief, the Connectic...
The Newtown Bee will return to print on June 5.
The local paper temporarily suspended its weekly print publication in April due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as...
Shirley S. Lawrenson was born in Keam’s Canyon, Ariz., on the Hopi Reservation on August 23, 1934. Shirley and her identical twin sister, Sherry, were the daugh...
The Newtown Community Center, 8 Simpson Street, will offer a modified summer program schedule beginning Monday, June 22, including classes/programs such as danc...
To the Editor:
To the town I love so much I’m willing to push you, I write to you, a town who helped raise me and grow me to the woman I am and working on becom...
To the Editor:
I am a senior in high school during the COVID-19 pandemic. For four years I was building myself and learning about who I was. And then that proce...
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.
