Simsbury Board of Finance Meeting March 11, 2025

Board of Finance Meeting March 11, 2025

The Board of Finance should be the gatekeeper for excessive spending.

The presentation of the Board of Education budget was approved with little discussion.

There were no recommendations for cutting many of the support services for Special Education that appear to be excessive.

The Board of Finance should be aware that ¾ of the taxpayers are supporting the Special Education funding for a small percent of the student population.

The taxpayers should vote NO on the budgets until we have the elective officials take a leadership position instead of becoming the cheerleaders for approving the budgets.

A 2.25% increase on million-dollar budgets is excessive taxation and should not be approved by the taxpayers.

The collection rate as of February is 98.29%.

A proposed Mill Rate of 34.06 places Simsbury as one of the highest tax rates in the surrounding towns.

The unintended consequences of this proposed rate hike will stifle all economic development.

The business community is affected with high taxes.

All the small businesses will have their rents increased which would affect their bottom line, shuttering their business.

All the renters in the apartments throughout the Town will have their rents increased which they can no longer absorb.

All the assessments will be appealed from the business community as their property value will depreciate with fewer tenants

The homeowners that have remained in their homes for a lengthy time and paid their taxes are burdened with high taxes that make living in Simsbury unaffordable.

Over the years the Town has studied the need for the Memorial Park Pool with the same results.

The cost benefit analysis does not show a benefit for keeping it open but it remains in the budget.

The taxpayers subsidize the Simsbury Farms Revenue Fund with an additional $151,715 year after year with no remedy.

The Comfort Dog had $70,000 used from the ARPA fund is a public relations fiasco that is placing an undue burden on the budget, eliminating needed revenues.

The Record Room needs more help to fulfill FOI requests from the public in a timely manner.

The Comfort Dog, that is caged most of time, requires a Police Vehicle that could be placed in the fleet, reducing the cost for a new car.

Overtime could be reduced by returning the Police Officer to patrol.

Supporting the Volunteer Ambulance with hundreds of thousands of dollars is not the responsibility of the taxpayers when AMR is available at no cost.

The cost for a Town Attorney is $171,000.

Adding a Town Attorney as an employee of the Town would be cost effective with an additional charge as a Grant writer to bring in revenue to the Town.

Town Manager Marc Nelson has proposed a Public Arts Commission to the Charter Revision Commission and repurposing Eno Hall for the Commission.

The Board of Finance should be the gatekeepers not the cheerleaders for all proposed budgets.

The only recourse the taxpayers have to reduce budgets is to vote NO.