Anwar joins in lawmakers’ approval of new contract for State Police

HARTFORD – State Sen. Saud

Anwar, D-3rd Distric (East Windsor, Ellington, South Windsor and East Hartford) joined his colleagues in the state Senate in the bipartisan approval of a new, four-year Connecticut State Police labor union contract that will boost state police trainee pay, provide a $3,500 bonus this year, and deliver 2.5% pay raises each year, along with a multitude of other state police benefits.

This is the second state police union contract that Anwar has approved in the past four years; he also approved the 2019 Connecticut State Police union contract despite Republican opposition.

“It is important for us to support our first responders, and this union contract provides them with that,” Anwar said. “These men and women work to keep Connecticut safe and this contract's increased pay and benefits will help them in their daily work. I’m especially encouraged by increases in trooper trainee pay, which will help Connecticut attract and retain the best candidates for the job amid competition from neighboring states.” years, according to the revaluation notice I received. Using the revaluation data would probably result in my taxes going down.

The Connecticut State Police labor union contract – which was negotiated by Governor Ned Lamont and approved today by the state legislature – covers the four fiscal years from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2026.

Something tells me the residents the selectmen heard from are the ones with larger, more expensive homes.

But getting back to the data above, why should we expect the trend to change to the extent that a new revaluation will show a major decline in high-end home values? The trend says they might actually go up. And if we do have a recession it is likely that businesses will reduce their inventory, commercial/industrial values could go down, and motor vehicle values (both new and used) which have been going up during the pandemic will start to come down (this has already started with used vehicles).

Motor vehicles and personal property make up about 20% of the total val- uation. A reduction in their value, due to a recession, will force more of the tax burden onto residential homes.

This knee-jerk reaction of the selectmen, probably due to the cries of the East Windsor homeowners with very expensive homes, will cost the taxpayers money for something that is clearly a gamble. Maybe this is why we never got a casino in town.

We need to see the revaluation data for all real estate, divided into commercial/ industrial and residential, and with residential divided into percentage increases for homes that fall within $100,000 increments.

Only then can we determine who is getting a benefit when the same data is provided for the new revaluation, and who will be getting the shaft.

Steven Fisher East Windsor resident