Mayor Florsheim has proposed a budget with a 2.7 mill increase for the coming fiscal year. This will mean an increase in taxes of approximately $500 per year for a home with a market value (not an assessed value) of $250,000, with larger increases for many homes in our city. While I appreciate the time and effort that went into his budget calculation, like many people I donāt believe that this is a sustainable increase on top of the increases of the past few years. What I appreciate even more is that the Mayor has invited members of the public to work together to offer their own perspective and suggestions to the City Council. In the past few weeks, I have offered several short-term suggestions, including a job freeze, a search for an alternative health insurance provider, and greater advocacy at the state level for fairer PILOT funding for Middletown. As an example, the Mayorās budget proposes $77,800 for a Grantwriter versus zero from the Finance Department. Maybe we wait on that? ...
My wife Pam and I bought private long term care insurance about twenty years ago. Itās a pretty good deal. For about $100 per month, we will someday ā when we need it ā be eligible for up to $200 a day toward either home health care or nursing home care. Add it up ā it could save us hundreds of thousands of dollars as we age. Iāve been a big supporter of long-term care insurance since I was a Connecticut State Legislator in the 1980s. But to be honest, itās never quite gotten the traction it should have. One of the reasons is that when people are young and healthy, they arenāt thinking about what their long-term care needs might be thirty or forty years down the road. But thatās when premiums would be most affordable. The bigger problem is that itās really hard for insurers to predict the costs of long-term care that far in advance, too. The costs of care often far exceed those that are estimated way in advance. As a result, the policies that Pam and I have arenāt even offered anymore...