Tax Rate To Rise After Budget Cut

The only thing certain Thursday night about the tax rate needed to finance a $264 million town budget in fiscal year 2011-12 is that no one knows what it is.

The Board of Finance cut $6,985 off the proposed 2011-12 town budget that the Board of Selectmen adopted Tuesday and then trimmed anticipated revenues in the next fiscal year by about $127,000. In the grand scheme of a $264 million town budget, the finance board's actions Thursday night would have a negligible impact on the tax rate.

But the tax rate of 22.36 mills - or $22.36 for every $1,000 of assessed property value - that First Selectman Ken Flatto had attached to his recommended $264 million town budget in early February was based off an estimated grand list in late January and town officials never updated the projected tax rate after Town Assessor Thomas F. Browne Jr. certified the grand list Feb. 28.

The grand list is the total assessed value of all taxable property in town and is tied to the tax rate because residents' tax bills are based on the assessed value of property.

Board of Finance members tried to get a revised tax rate associated with the proposed $264 million town budget so residents could have an idea of what they were facing before the budget plan heads to the Representative Town Meeting in late April and early May for review and votes.

Town Fiscal Officer Paul Hiller wouldn't commit to a figure, though Michael Tetreau, a Board of Finance member, noted that the proposed 2011-12 budget's expenses, revenues and tax rate need to be advertised in a local newspaper two weeks before the RTM begins its review.

Hiller said several factors affected the 60-day-old tax rate of 22.36 mills that had nothing to do with actions by town boards that review and vote on the proposed $264 million budget. "The major one which has occurred since that time is a greater reduction in the grand list," Hiller said, referring to the grand list as it was adopted by Browne on Feb. 28.

"We anticipate there will be other reductions by the Board of Assessment Appeals," Hiller said.

Six hundred property owners have challenged their property assessments to the town's Board of Assessment Appeals, and, if the board drops those assessments, the tax rate in the fiscal year that starts July 1 will have to rise even higher to cover the difference.

Flatto said he and Hiller had assumed a drop in the grand list before Browne certified it on Feb. 28 and that the actual drop wasn't "huge" in comparison.

After the meeting, Hiller said town officials hadn't revised the tax rate after Browne certified the grand list because no one had asked them to.

In mid-December, town officials held a press conference on the results of the revaluation - before any challenges or reductions took place - and said the tax rate needed to finance the current $251.5 million town budget would have to be 21.1 mills, or $21.20 per every $1,000 of assessed property value. Municipal Valuation Associates later reduced some assessments after informal hearings.

Flatto's proposed 2011-12 town budget, at $264 million, rises 5 percent, or $12.5 million, from the current budget, and the tax rate published in the town's proposed 2011-12 budget book is 22.36 mills.

But Hiller said Thursday night that the 22.36 mills should be higher based on the adopted grand list, though he couldn't say how much higher.

It might be possible to estimate the tax rate needed to finance the proposed 2011-12 town budget based on a comparison of the actual grand list vs. the grand list estimated by town officials in late January.

The grand list dropped by $1.19 billion from Oct. 1, 2009 to Oct. 1, 2010. But the drop used by town officials when they compiled the proposed 2011-12 town budget isn't known.