Date: Fri 30-Oct-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Connecticut-Magazine-ranking

Full Text:

Newtown Drops In Annual Magazine Rankings

BY STEVE BIGHAM

In rating the state's best places to live this year, Connecticut Magazine

added a new feature to its survey. For the first time, it has also taken into

consideration each town's long-term per capita municipal debt.

This addition appears to be a key factor in Newtown's drop in ranking from

10th in 1996 to 14th this year -- in a comparison of town's with populations

between 20,000 and 50,000 people. There are 34 towns in Newtown's population

range.

No doubt, Newtown has its share of debt to pay off following the town's major

construction projects the past five years. There was the installation of the

municipal sewers, and large additions to Hawley School, the high school and

the library.

According to Finance Director Ben Spragg, Newtown's per capita debt in 1995

was $906.25. As of June 1997, that figure has jumped to $1,736.85.

"It's doubled. It's a reflection of those projects," he said. "I haven't done

the numbers for 1998, but I wouldn't expect them to go up that much. There has

been no major borrowing since 1997."

For the study, each town was ranked using the following criteria: crime,

education, cost of living, the strength of the local economy, and

leisure/culture. The towns were ranked from 1 to 34, with 1 being the best.

Despite the high debt, Newtown's economy was still ranked sixth. However, it

ranked second in the economic department just two years ago, trailing only

Ridgefield.

Other factors used to determine a town's economy are the local unemployment

rate and the number of permits for new home construction between January 1997

and June 1998.

Newtown received high ranks for its low crime rate (8th) and solid school

system. However, Newtown was judged to be among the most expensive places to

live under the cost of living category (33rd). Only Guilford was judged more

expensive. Even exclusive towns like Westport, Ridgefield, and Simsbury were

considered less expensive.

For cost of living, the magazine weighed most heavily the median price of a

house purchased locally between January and June 1998. It also considered the

local property tax burden based on a typical resident's ability to pay, and

the percentage local taxes have increased over the past five years.

Newtown was near the bottom of the barrel under the leisure/culture category

(29th). In this area, emphasis was placed on the local library budget per

capita and the number of items checked out of the library per capital.

Also included in this category were the number of local theaters, museums,

festivals, concerts, historic sites, performing arts groups, arts grants

awarded during the past two years, local newspapers, state parks and forests,

and good local restaurants as evaluated by Connecticut Magazine 's "Dining Out

Directory".

The education category combined six elements: the percentage of local public

high school graduates from the Class of 1995 who went on to college; the

1993-1995 Mastery Test results for fourth, sixth and eighth graders in math,

reading and writing; the percentage of teachers with masters degrees; the

ratio of students per computer; the percentage of students passing a standard

physical fitness test, and the results of the 1995 Connecticut Academic

Performance Test for high school sophomores.

Crime was based on the number of incidents of murder, rape, robbery,

aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle thefts committed in

1993, 1994, and 1995 per 1,000 population.

In Newtown's population group, Ridgefield was the overall winner, followed by

Simsbury, Glastonbury, Westport and Farmington. New Milford was tenth.

In towns of 10,000 to 20,000 population, the winner was New Canaan, followed

by Avon, Wilton, Madison and Darien.

The state's 15 largest cities were topped by Greenwich, followed by Fairfield,

West Hartford, Danbury and Bristol.

Connecticut Magazine publishes its survey every other year. In 1994, Newtown

was ranked eighth. That year it ranked second in strength of the economy,

fifth in crime, was 12th in education, tied with Newington for the 19th spot

in leisure/culture, and ranked 26 out of the 32 towns in cost of living.