Fairfield’s proposed budget calls for $9.4M increase

FAIRFIELD — First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick’s proposed budget calls for $9.4 million more than the current year’s spending plan for the town and schools.

The 2023-2024 proposed budget requests $354.5 million compared to the $345.1 the town approved for this operating year, according to Kupchick’s presentation on Wednesday. She said major drivers for the increase were employee health insurance, energy cost hikes, higher tipping and recycling fees for the town and contractual union wage increases.

Kupchick said her budget would protect taxpayers, increase education spending, reorganize town government, invest in public safety and fund longterm contractual obligations. “(The proposed budget) continues to preserve our AAA bond rating and the long-term fiscal health of our town,” she said.

Kupchick said the wage increases account for about $2.2 million of the increased budget, adding 59 percent of the higher costs on the town’s side of the budget comes from contractual obligations. She noted her budget would fully fund pension and and other employee benefit contributions.

In terms of the school district budget, Kupchick’s spending plan requests an increase of $7.7 million, which is about $400,000 less than what the Board of Education requested last month. Under her plan, the school district’s budget will increase to $210.2 million for next year.

Major drivers for the schools budget came from contractual increases in staff salaries and health benefits.

Kupchick said the budget calls for an increase to the mill rate amounting to slightly less than 1 percent. That would result in a mill rate of 27.51, or $27.51 per $1,000 of assessed value.

“This is despite the high inflation and increased energy costs,” she said. “We really worked hard to keep this number down.”

If Kupchick’s proposed budget passed as is, a property owner with a home valued at $300,000 would pay $8,253 in taxes, while one with a home valued at $600,000 would pay $16,506.