Did you see the Times Record on Monday? Specifically, the op ed in the paper titled, “Property Tax Tsunami”? If you have not read it you should really take the time to do so.

Dan Harris, the Brunswick Town Councilor for District 5, spelled out in clear detail the upcoming challenges to the Council and to each of us as the budget and the vote for the new school quickly comes into view.

Mr. Harris made several points about the impact of the town’s budget and the expected rise in tax rates for the municipal side of the house. He then detailed the proposed rise in the tax rate for the school side of the equation. In total, the expected increase makes it hard to believe that this will lead to a long term sustainable situation. Then we have to factor in the new school bond.

The op ed likens the situation to a tsunami and in a sense Mr. Harris is absolutely right. A tsunami, or a large wave, is sometimes created hundreds of miles away due to a seismic event. By the time that the wave makes landfall there is often a great destructive power that is unleashed.

We, the people of Brunswick, are the land mass in the cross hairs of the tsunami.

It is not a story that is new to us. For decades, there has been little in the way of interest in property taxes in Brunswick. Sure, there are some who pay attention but the vast majority of people in Brunswick either believe that no one will listen to them or the ability to have a meaningful impact is beyond them. Either way, hope has been lost.

While most of our elected officials have had little desire to retard yearly increases in the tax rate and the rate of spending, there have been some who cautioned us. Former State Senator Stan Gerzofsky spoke on more than one occasion about the coming loss of monies from the state. Few paid attention. More recently, School Board member Billy Thompson, has spoken about strengthening the school department while being mindful that the tax rate must be kept affordable.

Mr. Harris wrote in his op ed that by the time our first payment is due for the new school we will have already had an approximate increase of 16 percent in our property tax rate over four years. That is, of course, if spending is not dramatically increased or there is not another emergency that arises. The new school alone will increase your tax rate by another 4 percent.

An additional 4 percent on top of the 16 percent may not mean much to some in Brunswick, but there are some who will not be able to afford it. For every person that says that they can easily pay it, there are others who will struggle.

Brunswick pays a great deal of lip service to being an open and warm community, willing to accept all that come to our fair town. In actuality we are open and warm if your check book has a certain number of zeros. For the average person living on Social Security or the single parent trying to provide a good life for their children we are a community that seems to want to push them out. That is a shame.

Ultimately, few will be moved to contact their elected officials. Even fewer will show up to comment upon the budgets. In the end both the Board and the Council will most likely take a surgeon’s scalpel to their own budgets to carve out just enough to make it appear that they are making a difference. In reality the $100,000 here or there will move the tax rate meter just a smidge. And of course, we will accept it because that is what we do when we vote in June.

Thank you to Councilor Harris for being honest enough to openly talk about the wave of tax bills coming towards us. We should all take a deep breath before we are swallowed up by the wave.

That’s my two cents…

Jonathan Crimmins can be reached at j_ [email protected]