Pina Dattilo plans her exit -- from budget hearing, maybe from town.
Another $700 tax hike? So long, Hamden.
Pina Dattilo may just be ready to take that step, she said, echoing other seniors at a public hearing who expressed outrage over a proposed 7 percent mill rate hike.
Monday's attendees — who were joined by another 50 concerned residents over Zoom.
Residents of all political affiliations came out Monday night to protest the proposed budget and beg the council to cut costs. In a rare moment of unity, around 80 Democrats, conservatives and independents put out a call for stricter fiscal austerity.
The proposed budget, which requires a second session for public input before the Legislative Council begins to deliberate and vote on amending or approving it, features a $15.8 million increase in expenses — and projected a mill rate hike of 3.68 points, around 7 percent.
The majority of those who spoke out against the tax jump were seniors like the Dattilos who said they fear they will be forced to leave town if the cost of living continues to climb.
“I’ve seen Hamden transform from a beautiful little into a sad state,” Pina Dattilo told the Independent following Monday’s meeting. After the mayor’s budget presentation, she and her husband began the process of “deciding what things we can take with us” as they attempt to relocate. “My whole life is in my home … but the handwriting is on the wall,” Dattilo said — taxes are going up, and Hamdenites are going out.
Dattilo said she now pays around $10,000 in taxes on her home, and may not stick around if that budget draft passes and hikes up her bill.
She and her husband Anthony Dattilo grew up, got married and raised their kids in Hamden. Now they’re considering what pieces of their lives are worth packing up as they prepare for the possibility of moving out of town.
Life in Hamden used to be filled with family, Pina said. But the Dattilos, including Pina, who used to work as an assistant to a fine jeweler, and Anthony, a retired self-taught engineer, said they have been losing family, friends and neighbors in droves every year — not to Covid-19 or old age, but to steady tax escalations.
“My heart breaks at holiday time,” Pina Dattilo said.
All of Pina Datillo’s siblings and children fled years ago to avoid the town’s high taxes, she said. Now, Dattilo said, every Christmas “our table is empty.”
“It’s sad because when you reach this age, and you don’t have a lot of time left, it’s nice to have your family around you,” she said.
Last year, when Dattilo had a brain tumor and underwent surgery, her West Woods neighbors nursed her back to health. Now those community members — all “lifelong friends” — are collectively planning to part ways in an effort to preserve their retirement savings.
“In 1969, Hamden went from a referendum where people could vote on everything to a Legislative Council … and that’s where Hamden lost it. Totally lost it,” Anthony Dattilo told the council Monday.
“We’ve had 52 years of bad mayors. One after another. And a corrupt Legislative Council! One after another.”
Staci Brody: "Residents are done bleeding."
Some of the night’s attendees defended Garrett’s position as the inheritor of years of fiscal mismanagement — but still condemned the proposed budget she put together.
“This is the first time I’ve seen an administration that was being honest with the town and had such a great attitude,” asserted resident George Levinson. “That said, I don’t like the budget either. I think it’s a terrible increase … It’s just unacceptable.”
“Although I respect the fact that Mayor Garrett did not get us into this deficit,” Staci Brody pitched in, “at what point do we recognize that we tell our residents the same story year after year? At what point do we lay down our swords, go back to the drawing board and recognize that the residents are done bleeding?”
George Levinson: The town has 37 vacant positions in police and fire departments. Eliminate those jobs.
“I’m a Democrat. I voted for the mayor,” yet another said. “But I expected based on the mayor’s campaign that this would include a reduction in the mill rate, not an increase. The entire staff of the town needs to be involved in making cuts.”
The consensus was the same among speakers: No more concerts. No fireworks. No flowers. Flat fund the Board of Education. Cut down on government jobs and benefits. Outsource municipal services. Anything, speaker pleaded, to take the burden off taxpayers.
Go line by line and cancel the frills, like a plan to hire a town beautification coordinator, many urged. Skip the close analysis and start a strategic conversation to streamline government and get the town out of long-term debt, others suggested.
“We have scrimped and saved so we could have a nice retirement,” Pina Dattilo said of her personal household. “But it doesn’t look like it’s happening so far.”
“We didn’t ever think we’d be spending that much on taxes,” Dattilo said. “We have to be very careful, very frugal. But my wife and I are from the old school — if you don’t have it, you don’t spend it.”
Though Anthony Dattilo told the Independent he is ready to make the move to Cheshire or North Haven, he does have one more plan to turn the town’s situation around before he goes.
“You know what I feel like?” he asked the council. “Like you’re driving me out of Hamden. I love this town. I was born and raised in this town. And I’m not gonna get pushed out of this town.
“What I’m gonna do is get a referendum back,” he concluded, swearing to take out a petition with the state. Then he said, he will give the people of Hamden the chance to vote on the budget.