The City Council discusses adding a non-binding question to the Nov. 4 ballot to determine the towns current tax payment system.
Photo credit: ChicopeeTV
CHICOPEE — During the Sept. 2 City Council meeting, the council approved adding a non-binding question to the Nov. 4 municipal ballot that would gather feedback on potentially implementing a quarterly tax payment system instead of the biannual system that is currently used.
Raj Sanghvi, city collector candidate and Chicopee business owner, asked the City Council to consider putting the question on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Sanghvi explained, “Many of us have talked about the collection of taxes and the current payment system. While talking with residents and business owners, I have been asked why the city is not on a quarterly payment system like our neighboring cities and towns. They indicated that it is difficult to pay two large bills every year and would prefer lower quarterly bills. The quarterly payment process would be easier for budgeting and would better match their cash receipts.”
He researched what other communities were doing for tax payments and discovered all of Chicopee’s neighboring communities have quarterly payments.
Sanghvi said the process would need to be implemented by the entire financial team, assessors, collector and treasurer. With two additional bills to collect, the collector’s office would require more time and effort to process the additional payments.
He also stated, “It would be good for the city to know what the taxpayers and the voters want in terms of tax payment systems for the city. Also, it would be good to have a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of the different payment processes. While a good deal of work and discussion would be needed by the team, knowing the preference of the residents would be helpful. This can be obtained through a ballot question.”
City Councilors Shane Brooks, Abigal Arriaga and Mary Beth Pniak-Costello all cosigned for the proposed question to be discussed during the Sept. 2 City Council meeting.
During the City Council meeting discussion, Brooks discussed the importance of getting the input and ballot result of the citizens before determining changing the tax payment process in the city.
Brooks explained, “This will simply allow the residents and the voters of the city of Chicopee to weigh in on something that many of us who have been around for a long time have always heard from certain segments of the population, that quarterly billing lessens the burden on those, especially fixed incomes, the elderly, and this will allow for four equal payments versus what essential the constituents that reach out to me have referred to as two bloom payments.”
Instead of getting billed twice a year, residents can budget more and control when the bigger bills are coming.
Brooks also said his mother lives on a fixed income and she and many other residents he talked to would welcome this change.
Arriaga said she supported putting the non-binding question on the ballot and it could save the city time by getting the residents’ opinion first.
“That’s the important part is do the taxpayers of Chicopee — our residents — want this? Let’s say we go through a whole year of back and forth; committee meetings, meetings of the whole, that’s not the people talking. Just doing a non-binding question gets it going. [If] people aren’t really interested then we don’t need to keep going meeting to meeting to meeting because people aren’t interested. I like this, I think it’s a good way to kind of, I think, check to see how are people really feeling about this.”
Pniak-Costello explained many people have been discussing this “for a very long time” and agrees it is time to see what the public thinks.
“The greatest thing about this motion is that the public will have some sort of say in this and they can guide us. Our job is to listen to the public and listen to our constituents and there’s no better way to listen to listen to our constituents than through the ballot box,” she stated.
Ward 6 City Councilor Samuel Shumsky motioned to further discuss this item at a committee of the whole meeting because he wanted residents and other departments to voice their opinions.
Shumsky and Ward 7 City Councilor Bill Courchesne also stated they expect a low voter turnout and would like to hear from as many residents as possible.
The motion was defeated and the City Council approved sending the non-binding question directly to the November ballot by a vote of 8-2 with one abstention.
Ward 5 City Councilor Fred Krampits abstained from the vote since he is one of three running for the city collector position.
