We haven’t received a response from Mayor Cassetti or his administration on city finances, but we have received two op-ed responses from Republican Aldermen, Frank DeLibero and Lorie Vaccaro.
Alderman Vaccaro and Alderman DeLibero ignore the unsustainability of the city’s finances, instead calling all Democrats “damned liars”… If you’re going to call someone a liar, point out which particular statement you believe to be false, something that Alderman DeLibero left out. If anyone is able to inform us of the inaccuracy of any of our statements, we will make a public apology and a retraction.
Let’s get a few things straight.
The Ansonia Democratic Town Committee haven’t and won’t subject residents of Ansonia to name calling, and sweeping generalizations about party affiliation. We hope all elected officials will do the same.
We have been accused of saying that the fund balance is too low. Read our articles, we never say the fund balance is too low. What we do say is that the spending trajectory and budgets of Mayor Cassetti are unsustainable, and the percentage of the budgets being paid with the city’s savings account is unsustainable and very high when compared to other towns.
Alderman DeLibero has said that we have called for tax increases. Ansonia Democratic Town Committee haven’t proposed tax increases. We have simply warned that they are inevitable if Mayor Cassetti doesn’t change course.
With regard to city finances, here’s another breakdown of the numbers, clearly showing unsustainability.
FUND BALANCE (AKA CITY SAVINGS ACCOUNT)
If the savings account spending from Mayor Cassetti continues at its current rate, the savings account will be depleted to zero dollars in just over three years ($13.5MM Savings Balance / $4.1MM Savings Spending = 3.3 Years Depleted). The budget circumstances that lead to Mayor Cassetti proposing to spend $4MM from the saving accounts won’t be going away, and in the next budget they won’t be able to dip into the savings account to make up the $4MM shortfall, without severely jeopardizing the city’s financial health. Where’s the next $4MM going to come from then? To put this in perspective, Target, one of our largest tax payers, pays roughly $360K per year in taxes. We would need an additional 11 Target size developments, or roughly $110MM in new development, in order to make up this budget shortfall. Tall order. If left to taxpayers to make up the annual $4MM shortfall, this would immediately translate into a 4.6 mill rate tax increase, and cost the average household an extra $550 per year in taxes.
INEVITABLE TAX INCREASES FROM MAYOR CASSETTI
The average annual growth rate in city spending under Cassetti is 1.6%, while the average growth rate in the grand list is only 0.2%. If these growth rates remain the same, and when we will no longer be able to spend $4MM a year from our saving account, these combined circumstances lead to even greater tax increases.
If Mayor Cassetti doesn’t change course, the average Ansonia household assessed at $120K will be paying roughly $830 more per year in property taxes in 2018 and $1,100 more in 2020. So we will ask Mayor Cassetti again, what’s his plan to address the unsustainable finances?
NOTE: This is a group letter written and endorsed by the members of the Ansonia Town Democratic Committee. It is identified as opinion several times throughout.
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