In reading your blog with regard to the budget crisis in West Hartford from a professional real estate perspective, I would like to thank you for covering this very important topic. You are clearly on the ball with regard to the very potential plight which has already started to happen in our town due to drastically climbing spending by both the Town and Education Administration.

Something has certainly got to give when the budget increases on average 6%+ every year, while the private sector tax payer is lucky if they receive a cost of living increase in their annual paycheck. This means that the town’s budget is literally taking away pay increases and then dipping into their paychecks.

As the President of the WHTA, I’ve had an opportunity to hear from many categories of people in town. You described many people who showed up at the public hearing so eloquently. However, believe it or not, there are two other categories of people who are not being heard or seen by the public who won’t express their feelings publicly for many reasons. These categories are stereotypical pro-public school Yuppie parents of children in the school system (myself included) and Generation X and Y college graduate students.

I have had many conversations with these pro-public school parents who are very upset about this year’s budget crisis. And they do see it as a budget crisis. However, they are truly fearful of retribution on their children either in school or in after school programs or simply among their own pro-public school parent peers. I believe you will see this category of people simply move out of town without saying a word. We are already seeing a drop in school population. This is definitely a situation to watch in the real estate market.

We are not seeing the Generation X and Y’ers due to the fact that they either don’t live in town due to unaffordable housing and/or they simply don’t care to fight…due to the fact that they know that whatever they say will fall on deaf ears. It is a known fact at the state level that this particular category of population are moving out of state where there are good paying jobs and affordable housing.

We cannot deny bringing attention to these categories of people. If we continue to do so, we will certainly feel the effects after the damage is done.

Thank you, again, for taking the time to call attention to our West Hartford Budget crisis.

Sincerely,

Theresa McGrath
President
West Hartford Taxpayers Association
(860) 570-1203
President@WHTA.org
http://www.WHTA.org