Response to the DTC Szabo Letter!

10/11/10

To the Editor:

A couple of days ago a letter to The Editor of the NB Herald appeared from Mr. Todd Szabo. Now, I wouldn’t know Mr. Szabo if I tripped over him but his letters appear infrequently in the Herald. Mr. Szabo ‘s letters always take the same tack, i.e., as a shill for the NB Democratic Party/ Democratic Town Committee.

His most recent effort seeks to take to task Mr. Mike Wanik. Mr. Wanik is the Chair of the NB CPOA organization as well as being the Chair of The NB Police Commission. Mr. Wanik has also been the Chair of the NB Board of Finance and Taxation. What does anybody know about Mr. Szabo? Yeah, right!

Mr. Szabo tries to defend our State Legislative Contingent of DeFronzo, O’Brien, Tercyak and Geragosian. He claims that these do-nothings have brought home to NB a tremendous amount of funds for everything, especially, education. In addition, he claims that these incompetents have helped NB with property tax reform. Here’s the real story.

New Britain, in area is a small city, 13.4 sq. miles. Large tracts of land house state property, e.g., CCSU, Corbin Hgts., Pinnacle Hgts. Extension, Goodwin Technical School, etc. These properties and others are supposed to give NB PILOT Monies. (Payment In Lieu of Taxes) Over the past many years these payments to NB from the State have been reduced substantially. In addition, NB has many federal properties from which the city receives nothing. E.g., Mt Pleasant Housing Project, Malikowski Circle Properties, etc. Our schools, our streets, city hall, our parks, churches, etc., give the city no revenue. There is not much left to help our taxpayers.

So, when it comes to paying our bills, where does the city get the money to pay its bills? From the taxpayers. Yes, from the bona fide taxpayers of the city. When one considers that our taxpayers can no longer shoulder the burden of the state’s largesse, from where do the funds come? Certainly not from the unfunded mandates perpetrated on our BOE by our state legislators. Certainly not from under funded PILOT Payments and certainly not from the empty promises of our state legislators. The NB demographic shows that the city has huge numbers of needy people and school children. These children come to our schools with huge needs. The state gives us much less than we need to take care of these children. WHO IS/ARE THE STATE? OUR LEGISLATORS! Mr. Szabo, wake up ! And certainly not from the entire NB state legislator sources you listed from which nothing in the way of money has materialized.

Go crawl back into your anonymous hole Mr. Szabo and blame someone other than an active productive NB Citizen.

Lou Salvio


103 Russwin Rd.
New Britain, CT 06053 860-225-9992