Tax Delinquents Impact Is A Fraction

Of Newtown’s Civic Wealth

By John Voket

Standing in the snug vestibule between the tax collector’s office and the assessor’s office is like standing between two different worlds. Depending on whether you reach left or right, you are at the same time an arm’s length from the most pressing evidence that Newtown is a community either relishing the fruits of financial well-being or skating on thin fiscal ice.

While Assessor Tom DeNoto recently told The Bee that each of the four elements of the 2003-2004 grand list — personal property, auto, real estate, and business — have individually increased, Tax Collector Carol Mahoney is in the process of reviewing about 50 active tax delinquencies approaching $1.5 million.

More than one-third of that million-and-a-half-dollars in outstanding taxes is owed by fewer than a dozen commercial property owners. The rest of the burden is resting on the shoulders of about 40 local homeowners who each owe an average of around $8,200.

Perhaps $1.5 million in delinquencies seems miniscule in respect to a town proposing an estimated $80 million 2005 budget and boasting a nearly $3 billion grand list. But Ms Mahoney will doggedly pursue every dollar for 18–24 months before selling outstanding tax liens for 100 cents on the dollar to a private company that will take over the responsibility of collecting the debts, earning a profit on interest and finance charges accrued until payoff.

In many cases, Ms Mahoney said she is aware of a hardship that is keeping the taxpayers from meeting their municipal obligations. While the tax office released a list of current outstanding tax delinquents for publication, the tax collector explained that the current delinquency list might reflect drastically different information by the end of the current fiscal year.

“A lot of these are people who have lost a job, maybe two jobs, in their household,” she said Wednesday. “We are working with a number of people who are arranging to make payments for what they can afford, and others have just started working again, so we know their checks will be coming soon.”

Ms Mahoney’s office typically maintains better than a 98 percent collection rate on taxes, and based on the data coming through the assessor’s office, her modest staff of four besides herself will remain very busy for some time just keeping up with all the timely payments coming through the door.

From Mr DeNoto’s perspective, everything is coming up roses. Data that he provided to The Bee reflects an overall 2.6 percent increase in the current grand list. The increase comes on the strength of 164 more personal property cases, 101 new real estate assessments, and a hemi-powered jump of 690 in the motor vehicle column.

“What the data doesn’t show is the decline in motor vehicle assessments in the 2002-2003 grand list,” Mr DeNoto said. “I believe that decline was responsible for dragging the grand list increase down to about 1.7 percent.”

This year’s new motor vehicle assessments are responsible for increasing the grand list by more than $14 million, or 7.5 percent, over the previous year. At the same time, real estate activity represents almost $59 million in increases, a more modest 2.3 percent.

The personal property increase is in the middle of the pack at 3.5 percent, a nearly $2.5 million jump up. All in all, the 2005 grand list — not including business assessments — stands at $2,919,921,011.

Newtown’s major taxpayers are represented by household names as familiar as Connecticut Light & Power, The Taunton Press, and the Rock Ridge Country Club, and by others less familiar like Arbar Properties. Altogether, Newtown’s top ten taxpayers generated more than $99 million in tax revenue last year.

The list of Newtown’s top ten taxpayers are as follows:

Connecticut Light & Power — $19,451,680

Sand Hill LLC — $14,384,370

Barnabas Realty Group General Partnership — $12,351,350

Homesteads of Newtown LLC — $11,849,990

Hubbell Incorporated — $9,379,460

Newtown Shopping Village — $8,215,160

Arbar Properties (owns 11 Edmond Road, site of a Pitney Bowes plant) — $6,560,420

Kendro Laboratory — $6,114,870

The Taunton Press — $5,882,950

Rock Ridge Country Club — $5,202,440