Smoke and Mirrors: Unmasking Hamden's Budget Trick

Mayor Garrett's budgetary sleight of hand deserves scrutiny. Like a seasoned magician, she's executing a carefully planned illusion, with taxpayers as the unwitting audience. Last year, she presented a budget that defied fiscal logic: a $10 million spending increase (3.42%) coupled with a $4 million tax reduction. An unsustainable feat, to say the least.

As detailed in my previous article, “Red Light Green Light” and echoed by the Finance Commission's report to the Legislative Council, this budget was fundamentally flawed. Professionals raised alarms, but in Hamden's single-party political climate, those warnings went unheeded. That was the smoke.

Now, the bill comes due. As I asked in my earlier piece, "Where is the money coming from?" The answer, predictably, is from us, the taxpayers. And here's where the real trickery begins, using the state-mandated property reassessment as a convenient mirror. The mayor claims, "Your assessments are so individualized; what one person experiences isn’t necessarily what another person experiences." This cleverly deflects blame, suggesting any tax hike is solely due to reassessment, not the budget.

But let's pull back the curtain. The proposed FY25-26 budget reveals a $14.5 million (5%) spending increase. In a transparent system, this would necessitate a corresponding tax increase. However, Hamden residents face a staggering $23 million tax hike. Why the $10 million surplus? It's to cover last year's deficit, created by using one-time funding to engineer a temporary tax break.

The brilliance of this illusion lies in its simplicity: blame the reassessment, not the budget's inherent flaws. This deceptive tactic masks the administration's fiscal irresponsibility. Residents deserve transparency, not smoke and mirrors.