Mark Twain popularized the idea that there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
It’s really a shame that partisan Democrats in Ansonia have embraced all three in their desperate quest to distort the accomplishments of Mayor Cassetti and his team for political gain. Luckily the facts speak for themselves on the state of city finances.
Numerous essays authored by “the Democrat Party” argue that Ansonia should no longer utilize its undesignated fund balance to protect taxpayers, and that doing so will result in future tax increases. First off, this is an incredibly paradoxical position: the Democrat Committee is saying that we should raise taxes now so we don’t raise them later. Their commitment to increasing taxes is admirable, at any rate – I just don’t believe it’s the right thing for Ansonia.
More troubling, however, is how the partisan Democrats are attempting to distort the true facts behind Ansonia’s fund balance, which remains incredibly strong. It is true that Mayor Cassetti and the Board of Aldermen have utilized the balance to protect taxpayers and businesses while our economy rebuilds and our grand list rises. Yet next year it will still account for over 9% of the total budget. That’s in the high range of what auditors looks for (between 8 – 10%) and higher than most other comparable communities.
An example of a truly undernourished fund balance is Derby, which registers at 5% of the total budget. And that’s in spite of significant tax increases in the past three years, which theoretically should be increasing the balance. This of course does not disturb Democrats in the least, given their party is leading Derby.
All of this goes to show just how warped facts and statistics can become when used for political gain. After all, anyone sounding an alarm on Ansonia’s use of the fund balance must logically view Derby finances as an unmitigated disaster, especially considering that their grand list has fallen by tens of millions in the past three years. Yet partisan Democrats will see no problem with all this.
Team Cassetti has worked hard to lower taxes, increase our business base and invest in the future of our city: progress that should be obvious to any objective resident. This is truly the long-term plan that will help taxpayers, improve quality of life for all residents and revive our economy. Now is certainly not the time to stop.
It’s really too bad that Team Democrat is more concerned with tearing their supposed “opponents” down rather then helping build Ansonia up.
The writer represents the Seventh Ward on Ansonia’s Board of Aldermen.
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