Clarifications

CUMBERLAND - The value of the Kent Street house owned by Jeff Mutter, who represents District 2 on the Town Council, was used in a story in last week's Valley Breeze as a means of explaining how two numbers, the tax rate and the house value, are needed to compute a property tax bill.

Town officials are making the point that while the rate went up, value decreased, so tax bills are generally up no more than the 4 percent officials had pledged.

Councilor Mutter said he felt singled out and is concerned that some might think personal assessments might influence his or other councilors' decisions on tax rate issues.

He notes that in addition to his home assessment, his family business, Mutter Motors, was assessed at $264,900, a 6.51 percent increase from the previous year.

This increase coupled with rate resulted in a 14.36 percent increase or $411.95 more in taxes than the previous year.

Said Mutter, "Printing this calculation would have clearly demonstrated that Mutter received no benefit from the enacted rate. Not printing it but printing the home increase left room for speculation. (I'm) still baffled why the calculation was not completed or printed unless the intent was to leave room for speculation."

CUMBERLAND - Former Mayor David Iwuc is objecting to a reference that noted he was mayor during the two years the town ran a deficit.

He says his budget requests were overridden by Town Council members and deficit difficulties should be assigned to the seven councilors.