Berlin Must Phase Planned Tax Hikes

The Town of Berlin must do better than imposing an unprecedented 29% tax increase on property owners in a single year.

The problems leading to the consideration of this huge hike did not arise overnight. Years of mismanagement and poor decisions caused the town’s present financial quagmire. The citizens should not have to fund the consequences of these mistakes in one year. Instead, the town should focus on crafting a three-, four- or five-year plan to fairly phase these increases to ease the burden on town property owners.

Under an incremental increase plan, senior citizens and others living on fixed incomes can have time to decide their futures. They can then evaluate a way to deal with the looming increased tax burdens or potentially sell their homes and relocate to less expensive locales. Those same decisions will surely be faced by many families.

There are two major issues facing Berlin’s finances — the town’s reserve fund is not healthy enough in the event of a disaster and three of the four town enterprise funds are not self-sustainable and have consequently been drafting funds from the operating budget. This poor practice has resulted in a major strain on the government’s budget.

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