NAUGATUCK — Voters are being asked to approve a $25 million spending plan that officials say won’t raise taxes. On April 28, the borough will hold a referendum on capital projects that includes designing a new regional animal control facility, building a new dispatch center at the police station and $10 million in roadwork. Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess III said bonding for the projects will not impact the tax rate. “This is probably, I mean to me, the best part of the story,” he said. “Basically, we’re making all of these improvements without impacting the mill rate.” The way Naugatuck officials will accomplish this and still get the money and start the work right away is by reconstructing the debt so it won’t be due for six years, Hess said. By then, $5 or $6 million in revenue from an Amazon facility being constructed in town will start rolling in as that’s when tax incentives for the project run out. That same year, the town will stop paying on old pension debt, saving it about $4 million. “So in six years from today, the town is $10 million better off than we are today,” Hess said. “The benefit comes to us now without impacting the mill rate. Get everything done now, make our town better now and not affect the mill rate.”
$25M Naugatuck projects plan goes to voters with no tax hike, mayor says
