Submitted by Brian Raabe
Former BET member Karen Fassuliotis took us through the math of the recent assessments and mill rate as if explaining quantum entanglement.
(Fassuliotis: The Dangerous Deception – Unmasking the Myths in Greenwich’s Property Revaluation Feb 10, 2026)
It’s not complex.
Residents can do multiplication and addition.
She appears to have decided on a strategy of marshaling her 1,500 followers (see recent election loss and vote tally) by writing from the rooftops – Fred Camillo and Toni Jones’ profligate ways are going to vacuum tax dollars out of your wallet!
“The end is nigh.”
She also disparages BET Chair Weisbrod for his assessment and mill rate math.
He and the BET Democratic majority were just sworn in. The assessment increases were in motion well before them.
And have happened every five years for decades.
One can understand the desire to drag the opposition through the mud, but the mechanics of this latest assessment were on your watch before the exit door swung open.
The heart of the issue is with a rise in assessments, unless the budget stays flat (it will not), tax bills will likely go up.
There used to be a Woolworth’s Five and Dime on Greenwich Avenue. And for the same reason we no longer mint pennies, it is gone.
You can’t get much for a nickel, or a dime these days.
And nothing for a penny, except your thoughts.
But you can find Dollar Stores.
Prices rise.
The cost of running a town like Greenwich rises.
The cost of simply living rises.
And in the five years since the last property value assessment, prices have gone up a lot.
But that is only half the equation.
Things wear out. Like Central Middle School, like Old Greenwich School, like roads and bridges.
While the preference may be that the world stops spinning, time stops, and we hold Greenwich together with baling wire, some of us are here for nice things.
And schools that don’t fall apart.
I can’t match Ms. Fassuliotis’ self-proclaimed 40 years in town, but it’s noteworthy that people feel compelled to throw down how they not only came on the Mayflower but helped build it.
There’s no tiering system for years in town – you don’t get more votes for time in position.
I can’t match her 40 years, but I can claim 25.
And plenty of taxes paid.
When one’s taxes go up – because that’s how time, and money, and inflation, and all the basics of Economics 101 work – when taxes go up one asks whether they are getting value for the money – and stewardship. The services they demand.
Yes, yes, and yes.
We’ll see where the mill rate lands.
Wherever it does, no one will be happy.
But while I have my issues with certain aspects of the First Selectman Camillo’s policy choices, I would not want to live elsewhere.
As to Dr. Jones running wild with the checkbook, she does not have that power, and all voters know it. No Superintendent does.
So, stop the silliness. It further diminishes your position.
Anyway, Ms. Fassuliotis is unhappy about taxes.
Same.
But we aren’t living off the land. We need to pay into the pot for what we all benefit from.
If one wants to live an agrarian lifestyle, in a town with one police officer, and a 100-student school system, move to Maine. Plant potatoes.
Greenwich is a bit more complex.
The property tax assessment hasn’t changed in 5 years.
Ms. Fassuliotis’ letter decries a hypothetical 5% move.
Have you bought groceries?
She calls the assessment and mill rate treatment “deception” and recent talk of it “dangerous propaganda,” to be addressed “head on.”
One should call it a stellar school system – that is supportive of all our property values.
One should call it professional police and fire protection, awesome public facilities, and a great quality of life.
Walk out your door, take a lap around Tod’s Point to burn off some of that hyperbole Ms. F.
You will see that is the reality.
No deception.
No propaganda.
It’s been working out since 1640.
Ten times your 40 years.