A Town Worth Wanting

There’s a difference between a town you can afford to live in and a town you want to live in.

Lately, Shelton has sadly become more of the former than the latter.

Early voting is underway, and Election Day is a week away. This is our chance to decide what kind of community we want to be.

Credit where credit is due — there were years when Mayor Lauretti did a good job setting this town in the right direction. Those years were marked by energy, optimism, and progress. But they're now a distant, fading memory. Overcrowded classrooms, crumbling roads, towering apartment complexes taking over downtown, lawsuits and settlements handled behind closed doors with little transparency about how taxpayer money was spent... the list goes on and on and on.

All in the name of a low mill rate.

Yes, the tax rate actually went down this year — but the question remains: what are we giving up in return?

As the saying goes: you get what you pay for.

And the irony is so thick, you can taste it.

More than thirty years ago, Mayor Lauretti was first elected to fight against the very mindset he now represents — the idea that “low taxes” are a substitute for real leadership. Back then, he stood for renewal, for opportunity, for the next generation. Today, that vision has been replaced by something smaller: the promise of keeping things cheap, no matter the cost.

Now, “low taxes” have become the sole selling point of his reelection campaign — as if that alone makes this town worth living in. But low taxes don’t pave roads. They don’t keep classrooms staffed or buses running. They don’t make our neighborhoods safer or our community stronger.

Yes, this town is still more affordable than many of its neighbors — in fact, Shelton’s mill rate is by far the lowest in the area. But those neighboring cities also have functioning schools, reliable services, and a sense of civic pride. They invest in themselves, and they see the results.

Meanwhile, we’ve mistaken “doing more with less” for a sustainable plan. It’s not. It’s just doing less.

Low taxes may help some residents stay comfortably in their homes, and that matters. But those savings have come at a real cost to the families who want to build something here — a home, a future, a community. A healthy town needs both: those who built it, and those who will carry it forward.

This election is our chance to change course — to demand more than the bare minimum, to raise our expectations for what this town can be.

Let’s stop confusing cheap with smart. Let’s start building the town we want to live in.

Vote for leadership that invests in Shelton’s future. Vote Row A.