Taxes Unfair To People

Without Children

To the Editor:

I couldn’t help myself, once again, to address something in The Bee regarding the tax situation in Newtown. We have lived in Newtown since 1981 and have loved the town and all its ups and downs throughout the years. However, the latest article in the paper made me once again take pen to paper because I generally can’t keep my mouth shut so I must say, when I read that we might have to cancel the students “skateboard park,” I thought, “my God, what will the poor children do without a skateboard park?” We should be hanging our heads in shame for even printing such an abomination. We have people in this town on fixed incomes. People in this town who have lost their jobs and people who are trying to make ends meet. The best they can come up with is the loss of a skateboard park? What the hell is wrong with this picture?

How about this? How about people who have no children? We have no children. We pay 66 percent of our taxes to education and we have no children in the school system. How about the people who have put children through the school system. People who are now retired and are on a fixed income. They are still paying taxes to put people’s children through the school system. I realize that this is a very unpopular way of thinking but for those of us who do not have children, believe me, this is something we definitely think about. Why don’t they make it a little more fair. How about those of us that have no children, pay a smaller percentage of taxes and each child you have, you pay more…seems fair to me. And for those of you that want your children to have extracurricular activities, pay for them yourselves.

We should not have to pay for anything but education. Period. You want your kid to be in a band, pay for it. You want your kid to be in a sport, pay for it. I’m quite sick of paying for your kids. Therefore, when the next budget referendum comes around, try to think about where this money should really go. We need more infrastructure. We should use Fairfield Hills as a business center, industrial center, etc. to gather more taxes. We, the homeowner, are carrying the tax burden and we cannot do it anymore. We need less zoning restrictions with regard to places like the Texaco station and the old dry cleaners that have sat there for years because of zoning regulations that are as old as this town. How long will the Grand Union sit as an empty building?

I hope, if the budget goes to a referendum again, that we will, again, vote No, and maybe the people in this town will get the hint.

Kathy Pinto

5 Tanglewood Lane, Sandy Hook                                 April 28, 2003