Taking On

‘Gray Flight’

To the Editor:

Perhaps you, or your friends, your neighbors, the people you’ve known for decades — the parents of families your children grew up with, went to school with, played sports with — are thinking of leaving town.

Call it “gray flight.”

Driven by rising taxes, the loss of open space to residential development, the threat to the character of our community, and a dearth of services, many people who have been in town for 20 or 30 years (and more) are leaving or are planning to leave.

It’s a shame, and we have to do something about it.

My proposal is to cut property taxes on owner-occupied residences beginning at age 65 at the rate of 7 percent per year until the portion of the property tax bill paid by people 75 and older is equal to the percentage of the municipal side of the town budget. As an example, if your property tax bill were $7,000 when you turned 65 (and for simplicity sake all things being equal), at age 75 your actual payment to the town would be $2,100 (30 percent of $7,000). In most years this will mean a real reduction in the cost of living in Newtown even after inflation, and it will make staying in town a better choice. Seniors who qualify for the existing Newtown benefit tax relief program could stick with that if they found it more advantageous.

Keeping more of our seniors at home here in Newtown is also a key to arresting the growth in our student population, which is what is driving the out-of-control growth in the budget, and the savings associated with slowing that growth will pay for the cuts. For every home that stays in the hands of a homeowner without school-aged children, an average $13,300 in educational operating costs per year are not added to the budget. Flattening the rate of growth in the student population also helps reduce the demand for additional capital spending and the bonded indebtedness that comes with additional school buildings.

Voters in the Second District can e-mail me at councilmanchris@gmail.com or call 364-1611, and my street address follows for regular correspondence.

Sincerely,

Chris McArdle

Candidate for Legislative Council

Second District

41 Bennetts Bridge Road, Sandy Hook                     October 8, 2007