Balance Sheet Dilemma...Rookie Mayor Ben Blake Raises Milford's Property Taxes.

Milford continues to slide down the list of the most heavily taxed cities in CT. Although we are not a Hartford or Bridgeport with Mill rates ranging from 50 to 70, well... all you need to know is that we keep growing Government in Milford, and our Rookie boards, Commissions and Mayor are making the same costly mistakes of their predecessors.

With Apx. 73% of the City balance sheet now liabilities (SEE CFR STATS) we can expect "A lot less for a lot More" and if you think I am kidding just compare Milford to our close neighbor right across the Housatonic river.

Shelton, a town near Sikorsky Aircraft, has a Mill Rate that is nearly 1/2 of ours. What are our inexperienced leaders doing wrong? Personally I think its absolutely everything, but mostly I believe our reliance on the bad advice of consultants, combined with pressure from local union leaders with a financial interest in Milford is a large part of the problem.

To make a case in point one just needs to look at the New Haven Ave. Firehouse constructed at a cost that was five times more than any other auxiliary fire department, however Blake in his view was convinced by the former Fire Chief that this was a "Good Idea" and voted to appropriate a multi-million dollar initial appropriation of which included hundreds of thousands of dollars for blue prints, all along accusing the Republicans for overspending a few hundred dollars on office chairs.

This, however, pales in comparison to the effect of those local forces tapping our town treasury. Blake has made several feeble attempts, or in his words "doing his best" to reject any policy that responsibly curtails organized labors dependency on public financing, or reject the intrusion of unfunded mandates.

The Unions and special interests in Milford have clearly demonstrated they have a financial interest in maintaining a co-dependent relationship with our Mayor, and in my opinion their long history of keeping well financed and locally entrenched candidates in key city positions prove this as a real threat to the financial interests and property rights of all Milford citizens.

Truly Challenging years are still ahead, and I think we should go easy on Blake for
now. We should not blame him, or anyone for that matter, because they try their "best" and do not get the desired or intended results. Perhaps Blake is the victim of bad advice from his staffers or advisors.

However,  I believe charisma and a sincere effort to succeed is less than what the people of Milford deserve right now. To borrow a phrase from the movie "The Rock" with Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery, I am getting a bit exhausted with the excuse used by those who allege to do their "Best""losers always say they are doing their best! Winners court the prom queen!" and Milford has yet to see that from this Mayor and his latest Tax Hike, during a historic global recession, is something to think about.

Mirror Article Citation:

http://www.milfordmirror.com/ 3419/ preliminary-2013-14-budget-woul d-see-owner-of-typical-home-pay-155-more-in-taxes/