Enfield Things

Posts

Showing posts from July, 2025

Election Issues: Goodbye, Mark Twain Pickleball Courts. Hello $600K Fermi Pickleball Courts. What About the Fermi Building?

July 31, 2025

Fermi -- aka Enfield Annex -- sports field We don't have local elections in Enfield. Sure, we go through the motions—candidates put up signs, pen the obligatory Patch profiles, and stuff our mailboxes with slogan cards. But we don't have debates or forums. Our appointed mayors fade into the background and run as individuals. It's disappointing. The community remains disconnected from the government at the most consequential time. Without election engagement, unpopular ideas can and will be adopted by the council majority—without sufficient public input. That has to change. This is the first in a series of posts I'll be writing on issues that should be part of this year's local campaign. I'll label each post "Election Issue" and present an argument. Election Issue 1: Enfield's Transparency Problem The town insists it's open—except when it doesn't want to be. Take the $586,000 Fermi Pickleball Court project. It was approved just two months a...

Enfield Democrats Surge in Fundraising as GOP Treads Water

July 26, 2025

A recent protest in Enfield, part of the nationwide "Good Trouble Lives On," in honor this month of the late Congressman John Lewis. More than 1,600 rallies were held nationwide. The local Democrats are off to a good start in fundraising for this year’s local election. In the second quarter of this year, the Enfield Democratic Town Committee raised $13,911 from April through June— outpacing Republicans nearly 9-to-1 , according to state campaign finance filings. The Enfield Republican Town Committee raised just $1,583 during the same period. Democrats began the quarter with a negative balance of –$1,294, but raised enough to erase their debts and finish with $7,092 in the bank. Republicans hold the cash advantage Despite the strong Democratic quarter, Republicans still hold a cash-on-hand advantage, thanks to a $12,911 reserve they carried into the quarter. They ended the period with $14,300 in the bank. But when it comes to momentum and new donor activity, Democrats clear...

Looking Beyond the Blame Game: Enfield's Real Tax Challenge

July 26, 2025

The previous post may have come off as a little too harsh on the Republicans. But there's a history that's troubling and needs to be addressed. My first post on the tax shift lacked context—context that this flier below helps illustrate. This 2023 flier claims the Democrats "soaked us with a 9.6% tax increase" in their second year. The tax increase was real—by my calculations, taxes went up about 4.5% in 2022 and roughly 9% in 2023. But the flier misleads voters about the causes. In 2022, the Democrats actually reduced spending by almost 1%, yet taxes still rose 4.5%— entirely due to revaluation effects . In 2023, they increased the budget by 5.4%, and taxes rose about 9%. Of that 9%, roughly 5.4% corresponded to the budget increase. The rest still reflected revaluation impacts. Looking at their two-year record: they cut spending by 0.75% in year one, then increased it by 5.4% in year two, for a total budget increase of about 4.6% over two years. Flier sent by Republ...

What Enfield Needs to Hear Before the Next Big Tax Hike

July 25, 2025

Unless we acknowledge the real forces behind rising property taxes in Enfield, we risk blaming the wrong people — and repeating the same mistakes. The revaluation now underway—the one that affects the 2026 fiscal year—may deliver a tax hike as steep, or worse, than the last one. Since the 2021 revaluation, property taxes have increased nearly 19% . But much of that wasn’t due to runaway spending—it was a shift in who pays. Homeowners, in particular, took the hit. Using my own Southwood Acres ranch as an example: My assessment rose 27% in 2021. My taxes rose about $800 between 2022 and 2025. Roughly $355 of that increase—about 45%—was directly tied to revaluation. That 45% didn’t improve our schools, parks, or roads. It didn’t fund new services. It simply corrected an imbalance in the grand list—and left many residents feeling squeezed. Why It’s Happening The short answer: residential values are soaring. Commercial and industrial values are not. That imbalance is shifting a greate...

Four of Five Enfield Fire Districts Considering 2027 Merger

July 01, 2025

The sample assessed value is based on my Southwood Acres home assessment. I live in the Hazardville Fire District. I'm using it for illustrative purposes. Take these figures with a large grain of salt. This estimate was taken from the minutes of meeting and any proposal has a long way to go before it makes to a voter referendum. But they do give an idea of what might happen. Four of Enfield’s five fire districts — Thompsonville, North Thompsonville, Hazardville, and Shaker Pines — are planning to consolidate, possibly by 2027. The districts have been meeting regularly and posting minutes of their discussions, which provide new details. This is an update to my previous post . I didn’t have the Consolidation Committee minutes at the time, but they provide necessary context. The minutes confirm that only four of the five districts are working on a merger. Enfield Fire District 1 is not part of this effort. This is new: The estimated combined tax rate for the four districts is ...

Search This Blog