Letter: Resident skeptical of capital reserve fund plan

There is a proposal being considered by the Town to establish a new multi-million-dollar “capital reserve” to accumulate funds in advance of large spending programs for water tanks, fire stations, two new schools and other possible future capital expenditures, essentially to raise taxes in the near term for future projects.

By way of background, the most recent modeling done by the Town showed that the cumulative impact of all of those future spending programs would be to raise property taxes by as much as 80% over the next 10 years.

It is no coincidence that funding that proposed reserve – and raising taxes in the near term – will, arithmetically, lower the rate of increase in property taxes over the next 10 years. This may be politically helpful, but it is bad news for residents.

Creating the proposed reserve is tantamount to residents giving the Town an interest-free loan years in advance of when the funds will be required. So, what the Town is really doing is putting lipstick on a spending program that will, in the end, still cost whatever it’s going to cost; the taxpayers will still face the same total property tax bill over the 10-year period but will have additionally foregone the earnings they would have received on their portion of the reserve. This seems like a confiscatory way to approach an already breath-taking capital spending challenge.

Frank Caine, Gambrill Lane