Avon Taxpayers Association Disbands As Leader Moves To Massachusetts – Hartford Courant

When asked to smile recently for a photograph, Flo Stahl didn't use the standard "cheese" retort.

"Zero tax increase," she said through a smile.

The words were more characteristic of Stahl, a local activist who has fought for fiscal restraint in local government on behalf of taxpayers for more than two decades in this town of 19,000.

But her battles with Avon's leaders are about to end.

Stahl, 86, is moving to Massachusetts to be closer to her family. She's looking to pass the torch to the next leader of the Avon Taxpayers Association, which Stahl founded and led since 1996. But so far, there are no takers so she said she's planning to disband the group.

Stahl, a Democrat, moved to Avon in 1967. In 1971, she was elected to the town council and served two terms before becoming a member of the town's finance board. She also served on the water pollution control agency.

Starting the taxpayers association stemmed from a contentious plan to expand and renovate Avon High School that was proposed in 1995. Stahl said she attended an informational meeting on the plan and walked away concerned about the $22 million price tag. Stahl said she helped start the association after talking to other residents who were worried that the project cost more than the town could afford.

Through the years, Stahl worked closely with more than a dozen people on the association. Together, they questioned town leaders about such big-ticket spending items as a proposed synthetic turf playing field at Avon High School, and pushed for transparency, publishing since 2003 a list of every municipal and school employee with their salary along with the value of their town-funded retirement benefits.

Stahl said she never saw the association as having a confrontational role and thinks Avon is generally a well-run community. She said things like publishing town employees' salaries was intended not to put an unwelcome spotlight on them but to educate local taxpayers about the town's single biggest expense. She said that is more important than ever since, in her view, salaries and benefits have become unsustainable for a town like Avon.

"We did not want people in government to think we were on a mission to get them," Stahl said. "Our mission was to get information to people so they could vote intelligently."

In 21 years, Stahl said the association campaigned against seven town budget proposals, including this year's spending package. Voters approved in a referendum Wednesday the $90.9 million budget, which will result in a 3.62 percent tax increase, an amount Stahl said is too high.

"Now, more than ever, you must become a 'vote no' advocate and campaigner or the budget will pass automatically on May 10," Stahl said in a notice she distributed before Wednesday's vote.

In a move to continue the association's work in some way, Stahl said she donated the $504 that remained in the association's bank account to the Avon Free Public Libary.

Tina Panik, the library's director of reference and adult services, said the money will pay for a program this fall on the four freedoms outlined in a series of paintings by Norman Rockwell, which are the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want and freedom from fear.

"We thought this represents the idea behind the association, of advocacy and knowing about government," Panik said. "I always saw Flo as courageous. It takes guts to stand up in front of a group of people and ask questions."

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Avon Taxpayers Association Disbands As Leader Moves To Massachusetts - Hartford Courant