My car tax bill showed up in the mail on Friday; yours, too, I bet. As Oliver Wendall Holmes once said, “taxes are what we pay for a civilized society.” I’d note there’s a world of difference between civilized and civil, but that's probably just the root beer talking. Meanwhile, municipalities struggle to pay for all the goods and services, we, their citizens, want to have.
It seems like every year, there's all kinds of brave talk in the halls of the state legislature about equity of opportunity and fairness in fund allocations but when all is said and done (actually when it's voted on and the Governor signs it), we've just changed directions of the circles in we keep chasing our tails.
A huge percentage of what cities across the state have to spend is comprised of federal and state dollars. In these parts, we in the Consolidated City District (most especially), are still somewhat in shock at our property taxes, but truth to tell, the amount of revenue the City of Norwich is allowed to generate and collect wouldn't buy us much more than a shoulder shrug in terms of financing our municipal government.
National and state leaders talk about tightening belts and lowering expectations in light of austere circumstances, et cetera ad infinitum (or so it seems to me), with, this time around, some COVID-19 damages and post-pandemic recovery concerns thrown in for good measure, But we really outdid ourselves this time.
I was most impressed with the nearly-flawless approximation of an infamous Charles Schultz prank involving a one-time, three and a half million Distressed Municipalities Grant in the state budget from discussions and negotiations as early as February for Norwich (among others), until suddenly both houses of the legislature passed the budget, and the grant was no longer there at all. Talk about Charlie Brown getting snookered by Lucy. Just like magic and the football, it just disappeared.
And I understand or at least say I do. Let's face it, budgets, like diets, always have two sticky moments: the start and the end. When you're trying to lose weight, the first five pounds and the last five pounds are the hardest. Those are the pounds you can't talk off, that you can't start losing tomorrow; they have to happen in the now. In the case of our state legislature, they solved their budget-balancing act in the now at the expense of all of us who were relying on them to stay the course and keep their word.
Shouldn't we know by now? What's that expression, 'fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.' What number are we up to now? (asking for a friend).
It wasn't so much short-notice as no-notice on the state's part. So our City Council at the mid-June meeting they had originally intended to approve a municipal budget ended up, instead, performing meatball surgery. The discussion and dialogue I, at least, had hoped for on what should (city) government do and how much of it should be done (and how do we measure that) became instead a 'Honey I Shrunk the Kids' approach which didn't do anything but keep our collective noses just above the rising water line (sure hope your tippy-toes muscles are strong because you're going to need them).
The discussions and decisions we need to have and to make about how to deliver world-class education across our city, funding and financing infrastructure ranging from roads to information technology, determining the shape and size of our public safety professional and volunteer communities, through encouraging economic development; in short, every aspect of reinventing our city for this century and beyond in the face of what all of that will do to our property taxes and community quality of life has now been delayed by circumstances we pretend are beyond our control.
Except, like it or not, those decisions still need to be made, as unpopular as some will be, and sooner than we'd like with less and less tolerance for differing and dissenting viewpoints and far less margin for error.
Remember J. Wellington Wimpy? He of the 'I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today' school of finance? Remember how that worked out? Exactly.
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