Expanded Veteran Tax Relief Plan Proposed

Veterans & Elderly Tax Committee
Recommends Enhanced and Expanded Tax Relief Plan

Hamden – Councilman Curt Leng, Chairman of the Veterans & Elderly Tax Team (VETT) Committee, is pleased to announce that the Veterans and Elderly Tax Committee has unanimously recommended both enhancements and an expansion to the Veteran’s Local Option Tax Relief Program.

The recommendations for program improvements include:

1) An increase in the Local Exemption for all low to moderate income Hamden Veterans to S10,000. The income guidelines for this portion of the program is set by the State and adjusted annually.
2) A new program of a $4,000 Local Exemption for Hamden Veterans that don’t currently qualify due to income restrictions. This new group will be allowed into the program by the Town increasing the income eligibility level for Veteran’s by $25,000, as allowed by the State.

The improvements to this program put Hamden in the top tier of Veteran’s Programs in the region.

“I’m really pleased that we could make some substantial improvements to the existing program, as well as expand the program for an entire new group of Veterans. We estimate that we will nearly double the number of Veterans receiving assistance from the Town, while significantly increasing the assistance for those that need it the most.”


The formal recommendation of the program will be before the Legislative Council at the April Committee Meetings for implementation in May.

Residents who have comments or questions regarding this program are encouraged to contact the Assessor’s Office at 287-2500 or Councilman Curt Leng at councilmancurtleng@yahoo.com.

Budget Progress ?

Three nights of budget deliberations have been completed. I was able to attend the first and second session, but was kept away from night three because of my work schedule at the shop.

So far we've discussed about half of the Town Departments. Most Departments were adjusted slightly, but with little change to the bottom line. There were increases to certain lines that the Council felt were important and deductions where a trim or two could be made.

This "balanced" philosophy changed when the larger Departments arrived - particularly with Public Works.

The Mayor's budget severely underfunded a number of lines in the Public Works Department pertaining to energy - heating oil, gasoline, electricity, etc. - these increases alone amount to almost an additional $150,000+ to the Town side of the budget.

Any Department and any line can be revisited by the Council, and I'm sure a number of them will be, before the process is over.

I remain hopefully that we can come in with a budget that has a lower tax increase than the Mayor proposed. I will keep you posted next week as to the progress.

Feel free to e-mail me at anytime to councilmancurtleng@yahoo.com for questions or suggestions - have a great weekend.

Budget Sessions 2008 Begins Tonight !

The Legislative Council has listened to 3 public hearings, 2 sessions with Department Heads and we're now ready to begin formal budget deliberations.

Tonight, in the first of approximately 10 sessions, we will review the following Departments:

Assessor
Building
Probate
Animal Control
Board of Ethics
Library
Economic Development

Hope to see you there !

C