Windsor Independents Vote "No" on Budget

Windsor Independents Vote No on Budget. After careful review of the proposed budget, the Windsor Independent Party advocates a "NO" vote on the proposed budget at the Budget Referendum, Tuesday, May 13th. Please VOTE at your usual voting location. We are taking a watchful and fair-minded position for the welfare of all Windsor residents. .......This year's proposed budget is $104,538,160, a $4,224,310 increase over last year's adopted budget, or a 4.21% increase. Question: if your taxes were going to increase by 4.21%, would you be in favor of this budget? If adopted, this amount would likely become the base amount for next year's budget, then the increases would be added. The Windsor Independent Party stands for "zero-based-budget" creation, where each department / expense, starts at zero, then expenses are added, building up to the total. The proposed budget increase exceeds the Consumer Price Index. The tax base will not go down in future years. ........... The proposed budget increase of $4M or 4%, does not negatively affect most taxpayers----this year. About 63% will not have a Real Estate tax bill increase, however, about 37% will have to pay more than last year. Also, commercial and industrial will pay more. Question: What dollar budget will result in no tax increase for any residential taxpayer? ..........Windsor does not have to restore every level of spending to what was cut over the past several years all in the same year. Could needed spending be added over several years? ..........Is everyone aware there is a budget line item of $130,000 for the "Great Pond Improvement District Fund"? In 2012the Town Council voted to give back to the developers 50% of their paid taxes to reduce their bonding debt to help finance the construction of streets, drainage, lighting, parking garages, water and sewer? New property taxes generated within the Great Pond District will be split 50/50 between the Town of Windsor and the Improvement District. The additional expected FY 2015 taxes generated are $260,000. $130,000 will be transferred to the Great Pond Improvement District Fund. ......This will be a recurring item in the annual operating budget, and will continue until all the bonds issued by the Great Pond Improvement District are retired. Based upon an independent third party consultant, the total incremental tax revenue in year 5 will be $3.9 million, in year 10, approx. $8.0 million and in year 20, roughly $17.5 million. Every year there will be a budget line item returning millions of our / your  tax dollars to the private developers of Great Pond Village.