Neil Chaudhary: The Patch Voter Guide

Party: Republican
Office: Legislative Council, District 3
Status: Incumbent, Seeking First Full Term
Pitch: Dr. Chaudhary has been a homeowner and resident of Newtown for more than a decade. During that time Neil has been active in the community and has shown his commitment to the future of our town and its residents with his service. Neil has lent his professional skills and energy to make Newtown a better place to live, work and raise a family.

My Goals:

• To maintain and enhance the excellence of our education system using current resources
  
• To encourage business growth in Newtown in a manner that is consistent with the character of our town without negatively impacting residential property values and quality of life

Neil explains his commitment to Newtown as a Legislative Council member this way: “I firmly believe in finding fiscally responsible ways to maintain Newtown’s core values without allowing those values to become a burden to us as taxpaying residents.” (Courtesy of Newtown Republicans.)

On The Issues

• The Education Budget

This was a difficult year and I did not know what challenges the BOE would face. The first one, requesting a $3,700,000 increase from the prior year, was too high in my opinion. 

That said, I think the $2.7 million dollar increase was steep, needed and adequate. Could good things have been done with a bigger budget? Absolutely. But at some point we need to balance the gains with the costs. I have two children in Newtown elementary school and want the absolute best for them in terms of their education. But, we need to consider that the economy was in shambles. Many residents took a pay cut or lost their jobs due to the poor economic conditions. The final approved increase I felt was a nice balance between moving forward with education and moving forward with quality of life. I recognize that not everything the BOE wanted was able to be included this year but I think they accomplished the major goals, and through planning ahead are in a good position for future endeavors (e.g., technology, maintenance).

• The Municipal Budget

I think a more long-term view of both the municipal and the education budget can be helpful. 

We need to focus on a longer-term outlook. We need to invest now, in smart ways, to impact the budgets of the future. We need to spend the money we have, without increasing the amount we spend by too much, in ways that will allow actual decreases in future budgets. Can we become more efficient? Are there ways to consolidate tasks and save money? Can we find waste and cut it? I believe the answers are “yes” to all of these. It will take time and effort. I believe the First-selectman has been diligent in this process and has kept a steady budget in recent times. I think our acting superintendent has made statements leading me to believe that he too will employ common-sense in creating a new budget. 

But, budgets will, in the future, need to increase. Let’s take the education budget. There is declining enrollment and many have argued that declining enrollment should mean declining budgets. I would agree with this in part. The better statement would be, big enough reductions in enrollment should eventually lead to a reduced budget. There are some costs that, in general, are unaffected by enrollment—building maintenance, contractual increases, health care costs etc. Note that in order to reduce staff we need to be able to cut an entire class. This requires a substantial enrollment decline. I would argue however that staff increases during a declining enrollment are problematic (some exception exist given the need to promote healing and a focus on mental health in our schools). 

But, it’s not all about the budget—it’s about taxes. I have said in other venues that we need to expand our business base. We need to have decent incentives for businesses to get them into Newtown. We need to fix the infrastructure to make it hospitable to business. But we need to maintain the character of the town and protect the rights of homeowners—I don’t think these things need to be at odds with each other.

Why do we need more business and business incentives? Because we can’t go on increasing taxes until we drive out hardworking homeowners. Business will share the tax burden—the burden on the homeowners and existing business alike. Tax incentives will increase revenue if effective at bringing new business into tow. If a business never opens its doors it will pay nothing in taxes. If they open the doors with a reduced tax rate for a few years, they have the opportunity to build their businesses with lower overhead during the time when they are the most risk—just after opening or moving. They are still paying some taxes—reducing the existing burden, bringing jobs to Newtown and perhaps encouraging out of town spending in Newtown. 

We need to fix the problems with long-term solutions not by throwing money at the budgets but by increasing revenue which will allow us to invest in the future of Newtown in a way that will reduce future costs, budgets and taxes.

• Do you believe Newtown's tax structure needs improvements?

I voted last year to increase the amount available to seniors for tax credit by more than 22% making more funds available for the disabled and seniors making less than $65,000 per year. I am not sure raising the cap makes sense—the current cap seems reasonable but I am willing to hear and consider arguments favoring an increase to it. Increasing the cap without increasing the dollars available would lower the amount any one individual would receive in tax relief. The dollar value available is weighted such that those who make more get less of a relief—that too makes sense to me. The question, however, is whether or not the dollars available for relief are sufficient. All things being equal, every dollar used in tax relief results in a higher tax burden to those not receiving the relief.

The next council is due to discuss tax relief for some disabled veterans in our town. I believe this is a worthy cause and look forward to seeing that happen. 

Revaluation, for the most part, is conducted according to state law. There is not much the town can do about it. That said, I think there is a lot of misunderstanding with regards to the process and how it impacts property taxes. In the future I would like to be much more involved with educating the public with regards to the process—I think that frequently our public officials assume that some folks understands some of the “jargon” we use better than they actually do. I often feel that some things can be better explained.

• What is the most important issue facing residents of your district?

I think my district has much of the same issues as the rest of Newtown. They worry about the cost of living in Newtown, they worry about the best education for their children, they are angry at the conditions of some roads in the district.

• What can the town do to attract more business?

I discussed some overarching ideas earlier. More specifically we can increase small and large business incentives. I have heard business owners say “why would I want a business in Newtown—Newtown doesn’t want businesses.” We need to change that perception—quickly. 

Tax incentives and infrastructure enhancements (e.g., the Hawley Sewer Project) can encourage businesses to move to Newtown. Fairfield Hills has the potential to be an excellent venue for business. I applaud the ideas proposed by others to allow extremely low cost long-term leases in exchange for remediation of the buildings. Even that makes it a tough sell—some of these buildings require heavy investment. I have read some criticism of these plans purporting that they somehow reduce revenue by such cheap leases. But if no one ever occupies them the cost is greater—and ultra-cheap leases do not absolve the occupants from paying taxes. Sounds like a win-win to me.