New Haven Register

Hamden taxpayers plan rally

HAMDEN—Residents who want town officials to cut taxes will picket in front of Memorial Town Hall during upcoming budget hearings.

Members of two groups keeping an eye on taxes said Monday they will demonstrate when the Legislative Council holds budget hearings at 7 p.m. April 16 and 17.

The town budget will be discussed April 16 and the school board budget on April 17.

“We’re asking the council to lower expenses and cut the budget,” said Marianna D’Albis, who organized Hamden Tax Relief in Action with her husband, Richard D’Albis.

“We’re all tapped out. We don’t have any more to give, and there’s no talk of reduced spending. It’s just business as usual,” said Carol Christmas, a member of the Hamden Alliance for Responsible Taxation, formerly the Hamden Homeowners for Tax Relief. “Both groups are going to join together,” Richard D’Albis said. Mayor Craig B. Henrici has recommended a budget increase of 6 percent and calls for a 1.6-mill increase in the tax rate. The current tax rate is 27.95 mills. The $173.6 million budget proposed for 2007-08 is $10 million higher than this year’s budget. The Board of Education has asked for $72.73 million and Henrici’s proposal calls for $74.6 million, but $2.2 million of that is for reimbursements schools expect to get from the state.

Meanwhile, the D’Albises have collected signatures from 750 people who don’t want a tax increase.

The nonbinding petition requests that town officials “have the taxpayer in mind” when they set the tax rate, and demands that the mayor and the council “consider lowering the (tax) burden” by keeping taxpayers in mind whenever fiscal decisions are made, Richard D’Albis said.

Henrici on Monday said that any budget he’s ever worked on has had the taxpayer in mind. “I invite them to be a part of the process,” he said of the citizen groups.

Petitions were left in businesses throughout town.

“The mood of the people is for change. Overall, we think there’s a disconnect between the taxpayers and elected officials. They’re not at the grassroots level. They’re not plugged in,” he said.

Councilman Ronald Gambardella, R-at large, a potential mayoral candidate, said that town officials are “way out of touch with reality” when they claim victory for increasing things like town employee benefits by only 1 percent or less when people in the private sector are getting their deductibles and copayments increased.

Gambardella also believes that longevity pay and a 35-hour work week are also things of the past.

“These are things that are egregious to the taxpayer. They’re angry and I represent that anger,” he said.

“The folks most outspoken feel they’re not fairly represented and in fact the only remedy to the situation is to have a budget referendum and revise the charter, something that I’m in favor of,” Gambardella said.

The fact that people signed the petitions at businesses means that a cross-section of people in all of Hamden’s neighborhoods feel the same way and about 150 signatures were collected at one hair salon alone, Richard D’Albis said.

“Taxpayers are carrying a heavy burden,” he said.

Copyright © 2007 New Haven Register, reprinted with permission. Originally published on 07 April 2007.

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