Top dogs
Boat-raiser
Local Little League wins all three divisions
Yacht regatta benefits Maritime Museum
Page 11
Page 12
August 24, 2023
POSTAL CUSTOMER
PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #217 CONCORD, NH ECRWSSEDDM
Weekly news coverage for Charlotte and Hinesburg
thecitizenvt.com
Hinesburg sets tax rate Increase is negligible COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
Hinesburg has set its tax rate for the 2024 fiscal year at a slightly higher number than originally anticipated — a 0.1 percent increase to be exact. The town’s $4.7 million budget, approved by voters in March, came with a 3.6 percent tax increase. But towns don’t codify their grand lists until the end of the fiscal year — and with the grand list increasing “slightly less” than estimated, the town is bumping up the tax rate to 3.7 percent. That means homes with an assessed value of $100,000 will see a $21.50 increase to their tax bill, rather than a $21 increase under the original tax rate. Altogether, when adding the residential school rate plus the town rate, the combined increase is 4.67 percent, resulting in a tax bill increase of $101.20 per $100,000 of assessed value, according to Hinesburg town manager Todd Odit. A home assessed at $400,000, for example, would see its total bill increase by $404.80 for a total of $9,068. The town’s fiscal year 2024 budget, totaling $4,798,710, includes little in the way of spending increases — only 0.25 percent. The town’s goal is to try and keep expenses stable amid declining non-tax revenues. “There was a fairly sizable reduction in non-tax revenue, so that meant that the amount raised taxes was going to go up by that amount, even if spending didn’t go up,” Odit said previously. The budget and tax rate’s initial vote by the selectboard was not unanimous. Selectboard member Dennis Place said he wanted to see some services cut to limit tax increases. “It just keeps adding up year after year after year,” he said. Odit said that the town would have to cut the budget by about $180,000 to not raise taxes at all and indicated that the town is “really at its taxing capacity” until new development comes online.
PHOTO BY LIBERTY DARR
War correspondent Anjan Sundaram gives a book talk at the Charlotte library, with his friend and colleague Lewis Mudge, a Charlotte resident and selectboard member.
War correspondent, author talks life overseas LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
Dozens of Charlotte residents met in the Charlotte library Saturday to hear daring stories of overseas adventures from war correspondent and author Anjan Sundaram as he discussed his newest book, “Break up: A Marriage in Wartime,” a tell-all about the personal costs many journalists make to deliver the news. But how exactly did Sundaram make his way from Mexico City to Charlotte? Turns out, the book is also a first-hand account of selectboard member Lewis Mudge’s work with Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental organization that investigates and reports on war crimes in dozens of countries across the globe, centered around the Central African Republic. Sundaram came to journalism out of curiosity and happenstance, which has turned into a life’s work of fighting some of
the world’s greatest injustices and re-telling stories about parts of the world most people will never see. A Yale graduate with a mathematics degree, Sundaram was working as a mathematician for Goldman Sachs when he opened up the New York Times one day in the dining hall. “I saw, middle of the newspaper, bottom of the page a story that four million people had died in this war in Congo, and it blew my mind,” he said. “I didn’t understand why this was in the middle of the newspaper and not the front page.” One thing led to the next and as he was paying his final school loan bill for school, he started talking with the cashier who happened to be from Africa. “I asked her where she was from and she said she was from Congo, and I told her that I wanted to go there. She said, ‘Oh, you stupid Yale kids,’” he laughed as he let out a grinning smile. “I became friends
with her and finally she accepted for me to stay with her in-laws in the Congo. I bought a one-way ticket after I graduated and showed up with no journalism experience. I had never even written a story.” At this time, he booked his first gig and became a freelance reporter for the Associated Press and began writing his first book, “Stringer: A Reporter’s Journey in the Congo,” the first of three books recounting his life from age 20 until 33. From there, he moved to Rwanda where he coincidentally met Mudge and wrote his second book, “Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship.” “I went there to teach a class of about 12 journalists,” he said. “Rwanda to a lot of people is known as a beacon of progress, but Lewis and I happened to see a very different side of the country.” See AUTHOR on page 13