Clunker Owners Could Get a Break

Residents who own old cars, very small strips of undevelopable land or businesses that have only one computer may no longer have to pay taxes to the town.

The Representative Town Meeting is scheduled tonight to debate a new ordinance that would raise from $2 to less than $10 the amount of a tax bill that no longer would be mailed from the Tax Collector's Office in Old Town Hall. The RTM session is at 8 p.m. in McKinley School.

Town Tax Collector Stanley J. Gorzelany Jr. said today that about 600 tax bills are less than $2, while 2,400 tax bills are less than $10 - out of 80,000 tax bills total in Fairfield. He said an assessment of about $500 would generate a tax bill of less than $10.

Gorzelany stressed that residents wouldn't be able to chop $10 off their tax bill and expect not to be delinquent. "If somebody had a $100 bill, and they paid $95, we'd still go after that. It's only original tax bills calculated to be less than $10," he said.

Tax bills less than $10 mostly occur with old cars, though the tiny tax bills also are generated by small business owners who have only computer and who have to pay business personal property taxes to the town and people who own tiny tracts of undevelopable land, Gorzelany said.

"We don't gain much by sending them, and they're a nuisance to collect," Gorzelany said of tax bills less than $10. He said the cost to mail and process the bills wasn't worth the revenue received and that the town would break even over time if the limit were raised from $2 to less than $10.

The $2 limit on sending out tax bills has been in place for at least 20 years, while the overall tax levy collected by the town over that time period rose from $89 million to $228 million. The state allows towns to waive original tax bills of less than $25, so raising Fairfield's limit to under $10 represented a middle-of-the-road approach, Gorzelany said.

The RTM can't vote on the requested change tonight because it's a proposed ordinance and has to be held over for a month.