To the Editor:

I’m Jim Gaston, Sr., a candidate for the Board of Finance. We are less than a week away from what I believe one of Newtown’s most important elections. Candidates have worked hard to get their messages heard. You’ve heard that I served as vice-chairperson of the Board of Finance for 10 years, and most recently as a selectman for the past four years. You know I believe demand is the key to a thriving town, the demand for people to want to come to Newtown, the demand to stay, and the demand for businesses to want to do business here. How do we create more demand? Control taxes, promote smart economic development, emphasize wows and explore new ones, particularly ones that are revenue gen-erators and financially self-sufficient, and don’t do things that damage the town’s image. Increased de-mand means growth of the grand list which further controls, or even decreases taxes. The Board of Fi-nance has long worked for a AAA Moody’s rating. We are at Aa1. That AAA rating would decrease debt service costs and save taxpayers millions of dollars over the years. There are 18 towns that have this AAA rating including such non-Fairfield County towns as Woodbridge, West Hartford, Wallingford, Simsbury, Madison, Glastonbury and Farmington. Newtown falls within the major qualification ratios like median/per capita income (ranked 21 out of 169 towns), tax levy/per capita, debt per capita, and property tax revenues. However, there are two areas we fall short – education spending per pupil (we would be 18th out of the 19 AAA towns) and the grand list per capita (we would be 15th out of 19.) Our neighbors (Ridgefield, Redding, Brookfield, Middlebury, Trumbull, New Fairfield, Monroe, and Shelton) have higher grand list per capita rates than Newtown. Our grand list needs to grow!  In addition to the annual budget checks and balances duties, the Board of Finance should also be the key financial advi-sor doing the financial and economic analysis for CIP projects. Boards should feel comfortable request-ing assistance from the Board of Finance in financially assessing projects even before they are officially submitted to the Board of Finance. Presently, the Board of Finance only gets involved with capital pro-jects after official submission. Yet frequently a financial analysis should be the first step in the process.

I’ve heard from you, and there is overwhelming support for these strategies.

Please visit the www.newtownctddemocrats.org. for more information.

What you haven’t heard yet is how grateful I am to all the people who support me, encourage me to run, make phone calls, secure flyers, signs, complete paperwork, etc. Thank you to the hundreds who shared their concerns and ideas about the town. Finally, a special thank you to my wife, Stephanie, whose support and patience is saintly. Teamwork works at the campaign stage, and at the boards and council. It’s time for change. It’s time for better strategies, balance and bipartisanship, and always, Facts-First.

Please Vote November 3rd!

Thank you!

Jim Gaston, Sr

18 Main Street, Newtown         October 27, 2015