Fairfield OKs mill rate hike
FAIRFIELD — With the budget passed and the mill rate set, town residents can now get a better idea of what they will be paying in coming months.
The Board of Finance recently set the mill rate at 27.24 mills, or $27.24 per $1,000 of assessed value. This is a 0.96 percent increase over the current year.
A mill is equal to $1 of tax for each $1,000 of assessment. To calculate the property tax, multiply the assessment of the property by the mill rate and divide by 1,000, according to the state.
This means that a property owner with a home valued at $200,000 would pay $5,448 in taxes, while one with a home valued at $600,000 would pay $16,334.
The town’s $345.1 million spending plan for next year includes nearly $202.5 million for the schools, which is about $10.4 million, or 5.42 percent, more than the current budget. That figure represents the full request of the Board of Education, which the Board of Finance restored after it was originally decreased by First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick to an increase of $7.9 million.
It also includes about $142.6 million for the town, which is about $2.4 million more than the current year and includes shared expenses between the schools and the town.
Kupchick said Fairfield got word from the state, which sent its budget to Gov. Ned Lamont last week, that it will receive about $1.2 million more from the state due to the increased assessed values of Fairfield and Sacred Heart universities.
“That is obviously a helpful thing that can add to our revenues,” she said, in a special meeting of the Board of Selectmen last week.
Kupchick said the Finance Department reported small increases from the state to education cost sharing and road aid. She said these additional funds coming in after the Representative Town Meeting passed the final budget is one of the reasons she asked the Charter Revision Commission to look at starting the budget process later.
“These are the kinds of things that happen that really can make a difference in decision making that happens for us on the town side,” she said.
Kupchick said she sent a letter to the Board of Finance, which set the mill rate a day later, to take that additional funding into consideration and increase the revenue so it can reduce the projected mill rate increase.
Even with the additional revenue, the set increase is 0.96 percent, based on a collection rate of 98.89 percent. In her weekly newsletter, Kupchick said the mill rate increase would have been 0.26 percent if the BOF and the RTM had kept the smaller budget increase for the schools.
“Every decision I make leading our town is made with the best interests of our residents and employees in my mind,” she said. “I think in the end, additional adjustments could have been made, especially during this difficult economic climate, but thankfully the additional PILOT money the town is receiving will help lessen the impact on our taxpayers.”
Democrats said the increase in school funding represented an investment in the town’s youth after tumultuous school years caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our children have gone through enough,” Jill Vergara, a Democrat from RTM District 7, said last week. “They need our help. They need our resources. This is the time to invest in our children and show them, and our teachers, that we value them. We cannot undercut our kids most important resource on the heels of this pandemic.”
In the finance meeting, BOF member Chris DeWitt described budgets as marathons, not sprints, before voting against the mill rate.
“What we do this year, and what we did five years ago, is affecting us now,” he said. “What we’re doing this year is going to affect us five years from now.”
DeWitt, a Republican, said this was the first time in his 15 years dealing with the budget that he voted against it. He opposed it because the Democratic majority increased school funding and made cuts on the town side.