While researching the City of Hartford's on-line tax database system, I found many names of people in "leadership" positions in Hartford who were delinquent on their motor vehicle taxes. I have spoke with several of them and the response was pretty much the same. They are all struggling to make ends meet and they are unable to afford Hartford's high taxes and ever increasing mill rate.
One of Hartford's "leaders" who did not show any past due motor vehicle taxes owed in Hartford was Democratic Town Committee Chairman Sean Arena. Oddly enough though, neither Sean Arena or his brother Ralph Arena showed any vehicles at all registered or taxed in Hartford. Ralph Arena is a member of the 4th District Town Committee.
Since I know they both drive vehicles, I was wondering how this was possible.
The next stop was a visit to the Connecticut Motor Vehicle Department to find out if the Arena's had vehicles in their names and if so, where were they taxed? Surprisingly, DMV records showed that both Sean and Ralph Arena had vehicles registered to them and taxed in the Town of New Canaan, Connecticut. By Connecticut law, the vehicles must be taxed in the town where they are "garaged", in this case, Hartford. Not in the town with the lowest tax rate.
Their bills were both sent to an address of 156 South Avenue in New Canaan, Connecticut. According to the Town of New Canaan, 156 South Avenue is a low income/senior housing project. Apparently the Arena's sister, Patricia Arena is a resident of this complex and the bills are sent to her unit.
You might ask why the Arena's would choose to register their cars at an address not their own? The answer is quite simple when you consider the financial gain to the Arena brothers. New Canaan's mill rate is 13 mills, Hartford's mill rate 68 mills. This difference has resulted in a savings of thousands of dollars for Sean and Ralph Arena, while fleecing the City of Hartford of thousands of dollars of much needed revenue.
It most likely would also result in substantial insurance savings for registering the cars outside of Hartford.
All of this information was obtained through public documents and public information from agencies that understand and respect the Freedom of Information Act. Thank you to the DMV and the Town of New Canaan.
More government as usual for Hartford it would appear. Hopefully the Tax Collector and the States Attorney's office will take note and look into this matter.
4:30PM UPDATE- In an effort to divert attention, Sean Arena has apparently offered to the Hartford Courant to produce a Hartford Tax bill showing that he and his partner, James Holcomb did pay taxes on a vehicle registered in Hartford. The problem is that the vehicle is his partners vehicle, not his Audi. A challenge to Sean, produce the tax bill for your vehicle that you drive, not your partners. You may have to go to New Canaan to get a copy of it.
TOWN OF NEW CANAAN TAX PRINTOUTS FOR SEAN AND RALPH ARENA
Arena's Tax Printouts
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4 comments:
I am not surprised Sean and Ralph are avoiding paying the City car taxes,after all they are firends of Mayor Perez.I suspect that both Sean and Ralph also on their insurance policies on their cars have declared that they live in New Cannan, where they both are paying theircar tax,even though both own condo's in Hartford.The federal and state authorities and Insurance Commissioner and their car insurance company should be notified of their frauds and they should be forced to pay the Hartford cat tax,plus interest,for all the years they avoided it.They should also both resign from the town committee.
This is great. Cheat the City. I wish I could register my car somewhere cheaper. Wouldn't it be great if everyone could do this? 200,000 cars registered in Cannan but only 6,000 people live there. These clowns should be fined and made to pay all the money back to Hartford. It's also funny that the guy is dumb enough to show his partners tax bill.
Lets put it like this, if Marlene Fleeting, a city employee got away with $3000.00 worth of unpaid parking tickets and still was able to register her car through the Department Motor Vehicle between Oct 04 and Aug 05 what does that tell you about the Mayor's employees. Marlene Fleeting should have been forced to pay her unpaid parking tickets at hand just like the rest of us. As a reminder, she was the cashier supervisor in the Tax Collectors Office at that time.
The city of hartford does not even let you negotiate a settlement if you have back taxes....These politicians skip out on paying Htfd taxes all together. They should be forced like everyone else or have a lien placed on the vehicles they drive. Thats how they would do the average minimum wage making citizen.
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