A Question of Fairness: How Sherman’s Revaluation Targeted the Middle Class
Property taxes are going up. While overall rates remain low for Connecticut, the distribution of that new debt is wildly uneven.
Let’s be honest about living in Sherman: even with the recent increases, our property taxes remain fairly low compared to virtually anywhere else in Connecticut. They should be, since we receive almost no municipal services. No one is truly being crushed into poverty by the mill rate alone. The frustration currently bubbling up across town isn’t just about the dollar amount attached to the $50 million school project or the length of the loan; it is about basic fairness. Part of the appeal of small-town life is leaving big-city political maneuvering behind. Yet, a close look at our latest tax distribution suggests those exact problems have quietly found their way into our isolated community. It seems we found yet another example of the administrator class dealing favors for the wealthy class, hoping the working class wouldn't notice. Well, we did.
Sherman CT News recently ran the town's digital database through an algorithmic check, going over the numbers with a fine-tooth comb. What we found is nothing short of startling in its plainness. The administration has essentially saddled the middle class with the overwhelming majority of the new tax burden to pay off the school debt while largely leaving upper-class estates alone. The data shows a steep upward trajectory for working families and a flat, undisturbed valuation line for those at the very top, which includes several senior municipal leaders.
The Data and the Disconnect
The rollout of these new assessments was remarkably clumsy. When residents tried to look up their field cards on the official third-party website, the system was riddled with errors or presented confusing, mixed metrics that made it difficult to understand true assessed values. We expect a fair tax system and we demand transparent reporting. When we log on to an official portal, we expect clean data, not selective manipulation of some numbers while others remain hidden. This may be a small town but that doesn't mean municipal business should be done on construction paper with crayons. The people of Sherman expect a basic level of competence.
Right when citizens needed to access the town's public-facing field card portal to audit their new assessments—the same infrastructure where surrounding Connecticut towns host their property data—the database was fundamentally disabled. Users attempting to pull up their files at PropertyRecordCards.com were met with a persistent HTTP 500 Internal Server Error page, effectively shutting down public scrutiny at the exact moment the clock was ticking on their statutory right to appeal.
Simultaneously, the digital systems that remained functional were configured to display deceptive, mixed valuation metrics. The third-party interface hosted by J.F. Ryan Associates was set up to display 2022 market values at 100 percent directly alongside the 70 percent assessed values for 2023 without clear context. Anyone looking at the history table would naturally assume their baseline valuation dropped by roughly 30 percent, yet this is a complete administrative fiction. This deliberate juxtaposition created a powerful optical illusion, misleading homeowners into a false sense of security while their actual tax liabilities climbed underneath.
The Criminal Referral
Town officials will likely deny this disparity exists. More likely, they will simply play the ostrich, burying their heads in the sand and pretending nothing is wrong. Like clockwork, the administration's response to inquiries from Sherman CT News has been absolute silence. This classic constructive denial withholds public files and forces the issue into a prolonged bureaucratic bottleneck. Such obstruction is not a routine administrative delay. Ignoring the problem will not make it disappear. The mishandling of this revaluation has resulted in a formal referral to the State Attorney General's Criminal Division. Make no mistake, a deep, state-level analysis of the administration's inner workings and their tax system is likely coming and it will not be a pleasant process for Town Hall.
The End of the Honor System
This scrutiny is arriving because of the negligence and clumsiness that is quickly becoming the identifying characteristic of this administration. Its fingerprints are all over everything it touches. For years, this administration has skated by without having to report clearly, be transparent, or own up to any real accountability. That ends now.
Come election time, voters might opt for a better solution going forward. Until then, the administration needs to keep its nose clean because we are watching. This isn't the end of the inquiry; it is just the beginning. Frankly, what drives this investigation more than anything else is the sheer stupidity of it all. We simply can't stand it.