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Party politics rear ugly head in N. Stonington
North Stonington politics has done it again. The Board of Education seat was a prime example of how politics play into the decision-making of this town. It appears that some political party members were attempting to stack a board for their own personal agendas. ("N. Stonington selectman quits party in dispute over board vacancy," Aug. 17.)
Posted 22 August 2010
First, please allow me to start by making the attempt to educate the many folks I have discovered in North Stonington who are "mis-educated" with respect to fee's and taxes etc..
A fee is a tax, a fine is a tax, and a tax is a tax, there is no difference between the three (3) other than how they are applied to the citizen who has to pay them. Below are some of the definitions of Fee and Tax:
FEE- A fee is the price one pays as remuneration for services. Fees usually allow for overhead, wages, costs, and markup. A fixed charge for a privilege or for professional services.
TAX- A contribution made by people to fund the services provided by the government, such as transport, education or health services.
Money paid to a government. Taxes paid by individuals may include income tax, property tax and sales tax.
Now, if we were to bring in the lawyers, the "wordsmith's" and the political correct folks we could spend countless days hashing out the meaning of the above definitions, if I may take the liberty of speaking on the "common folk's" level, the above definitions are the same and quite interchangeable in that a fee is a renumeration for services, a tax is a contribution for services. Albeit the tax is a in-voluntary contribution. The services in this case are the services provided for by our wonderful and ever frugal town government, I would suspect that the argument on that point should be limited as we can all agree, we, the taxpayers and fee payers are contributing our money for services.
I'm going to quote some of the statements from the 15 August 2010 article taken from The Day newspaper.
"The town is bringing more curbside trash to the regional incinerator than it has budgeted, so it must now charge landfill users to make up the difference, according to First Selectman Nicholas Mullane II."
Perhaps maybe this has something to do with the cleanup efforts of the flood, has anyone taken that into account?
As a resident of North Stonington I would like to see and learn how the town officials "budget" the waste budget. Seeing how they did not anticipate the increase due to the flood how then are they going to anticipate the increase in waste when we commit to this whole "affordable housing" scam and the increase in waste that will come from the increased residents? Again I say more development only leads to more taxes for the citizen taxpayer and only serves to line the pockets of the non-resident non- taxpayer to the town, developer.
I again go back to perhaps the increase is due to cleanup efforts of the town after the flood, why not hold off on this increase until the cleanup is complete and see what happens to the amount of waste.
"Selectmen's Assistant Robin Roohr, said 801 stickers have been sold to date, and selectmen expect to sell 1,000."The town was essentially short apprx. 60,000 dollars to cover the expense of the increased trash intake, they have already recovered 48,060 dollars, once the town has sold 1000 stickers at 60 dollars a piece which will make up the 60 grand shortfall what then happens to the 1001 and so on residents who show up to use the dump? What happens to the money that they collect over the 60 grand? Mr. Mullane, any grand idea's?
"Donna Pelish has been working at the transfer station for 10 years. If anyone bears the brunt of the complaints, she said, it's her.
"For the most part people are for it, and there are a few that are against it and we have to tell them not to shoot the messenger," Pelish said. "They have to look at it, $60 a year is like $5 a month. Compared to other towns we're still cheaper."
The main reason Donna Pelish has taken the "brunt" of this is because most of the residents I have conferred with were totally UNAWARE of the new imposed Tax/Fee until they showed up at the transfer station the way we have done for years only to see the sign that you now have to pay 60 bucks. After review of the towns website, the North Stonington bulletin board, my mail box various telephone poles and a stop by town hall there was/is NO notification that our Honorable First Selectman had made this decision to increase our tax. I say tax increase only because Mr. Mullane stated that our taxes were not going to be increased, we now pay for a service that we did not pay for in the past that has to do with the towns budget, hence the tax increase.
I'm uncertain how Mrs. Pelish comes up with the statement that "for the most part people are for it" however, the comments by
“Resident Bruce Allen said he believes the fee is fair.
"It's the going rate in Mystic and probably everywhere else. Someone has to pay it, so I'm not against it," Allen said.
I can see where she can make the assessment that all the taxpayers of North Stonington are for this based on Mr. Allens mis-guided thought process. I for one take a most serious exception with Mr. Allens comment of "It's the going rate in Mystic and probably everywhere else", this is the logic and thought process that erodes our freedoms and our right to be free from Government intrusion into our personal lives, I'm fairly certain that Mr. Allen would relish the thought of the Government taking more of his money away from him based on his comment to The Day. Mr. Allen I say to you Sir, if those people over in Mystic were slapped every morning in their face would you too want to encourage that here in North Stonington? If those in Groton were assessed a daily fee if their grass were longer than two inches in height would you want that imposed here? For a town that takes in roughly 17 million and spends 12 million on the Board of Ed and with virtually NO town services I found the fact the residents of North Stonington did NOT have to pay to use the transfer station a positive. Do not let the precedent, be it good or bad that others set in other towns, counties and states be the driving force in your decision making process when it comes to North Stonington. How people can agree with and want to freely give more of their money to Government is beyond my brains ability to rationalize, my apologies for that.
So, on to how to come through this, as I firmly believe that one should not complain about an issue without having some form of a solution. It does no good rant about something and then not have a way to correct it.
I took a look at our towns overall budget (sure enough there is a line item (sched A, 5.27) that was not there earlier talking to this new transfer station tax, AKA the "transfer station sticker sale" like a bake sale? ) As an-aside I found some curious line items and some curious salaries. So, the town needed to come up with 60 grand to cover the added waste intake, I propose we take the budgeted 22,500 dollars from the "Volunteer Longevity Award" and the 36,000 dollars from the "Volunteer Activity Stipend" and use this total of 58,500 towards this transfer station Tax. By the way, what exactly is the "Volunteer Longevity Award" and the Volunteer Activity Stipend"? That now leaves 1500 dollars that we have to come up with to cover this expense.
Here is where it gets good and I'm certain that most of us "common sense" taxpayers are going to love and embrace. Who is the highest compensated Town employee? If you said the Town Highway Foreman you are correct, our "highway foreman" makes a salary of 76,436, of which includes the recent 1500 dollar pay increase that was budgeted into this years budget. We still need 1500 dollars to cover the cost of the increase in waste intake. Anyone making a connection here?
The other curious salary I found was for our Tax Assessor, our Tax Assessor makes 61,489 a year which includes a 1206 dollar pay raise however, our Tax Collector (the one who bears the brunt only makes 31,663) curious how the Tax Assessor is the second highest compensated Town employee alas, I digress. To be fair and to allow those hard working town employee's their raise I recommend to combine those two pay raises, one was for 1500 dollars and one for 1206 dollars as one amount, 2706 dollars, subtract the 1500 dollars required to cover the remaining money needed to pay for the waste increase then divide the remaining amount, 1206 dollars between the Highway Foreman and the Tax Assessor and give the Tax Assessor and Highway Foreman a 603 dollar cash service award.
In closing, I respectfully request that our Honorable First Selectmen, Mr. Mullane give serious thought and consideration to making a one time budget adjustment to move the monies from the Volunteer Longevity Award and the Volunteer Activity Stipend totaling 58,500 dollars along with the reduced pay raise from the Highway Foreman and Tax Assessor to make up the remaining 1500 dollars that will total the needed 60,000 dollars and still allow for a one time payment/service award of 603 dollars to the Tax Assessor and the Highway Foreman.
Very Respectfully submitted
T.J.
Posted 22 August 2010
I am very bothered by the new fee of $60 that is charged to use the transfer station in North Stonington. It is nothing more than a hidden tax! I am one taxpayer that is tired of our elected officials creating these taxes and trying to minimize it to just a fee. The State of Connecticut did it with hunting and fishing licenses and I can't imagine what the Federal Government will come up with.Is there any interest and does anyone know how to petition the tax to try and repeal it? I would like to hear from you and help.
Brian A. Rathbun
Posted 6 August 2010