The following excerpted notification has just been printed in the Internet edition of the New London Day, which means it should also be in the Friday 4/5/19 printed edition. It highlights a startling, disturbing, million dollar problem that many of us did not realize. It shows an immediate need for better efficiency regarding expenses involving Groton City...right now...because otherwise Groton Town taxpayers are going to be paying for this huge excess and at the same time dropping to a lower quality level of service involving two emergency ambulance companies and two vital community libraries. Groton taxpayers should contact your RTM and Council reps right away and express your feelings on this issue because, as mentioned, the Town Council is actually reviewing the City Budget on Saturday, 4/6/19. We need to act on this right now.
The full letter can be read at "TheDay.com with a different title.
Your Tax Dollars at Work in Groton
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The Town of Groton pays the City of Groton to maintain 28 miles of town roads within the city. This stems from arrangements made in 1933 between the town and what was then the Borough of Groton.
Today, the town’s highway maintenance costs are $32,000 per mile. However, when the city presented its bill (cost center 10901) for fiscal-year 2020 their costs for highway maintenance added up to $70,621 per mile, double the town’s cost! The difference, for maintaining 28 miles of roads for a year, comes to an incredible $1,094,592. And this while the town budget is proposing a 25 percent cut to nonmandated health and services agencies, including Groton Ambulance, Mystic River Ambulance, Mystic/Noank Library and Bill Memorial Library.
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The $1,094,592 accounts for over 70 percent of rainy day funds being applied to next years’ spending. Incredibly, we’re paying twice the cost for something using rainy day funds, while short changing libraries and ambulances!
The Town Council will be voting on funding for the City of Groton on Saturday. Ask the Town Council and your RTM reps why the town should pay the city twice what the town’s costs are. Why are rainy day funds being used? Why are we taxing citizens for this? And how did libraries and ambulances get shorted?
Robert Frink, Groton
