Grand List increases in Cromwell

CROMWELL >> The 2015 Grand List rose by 2.56 percent over the prior year, officials said this week.

The Grand List is the aggregate of all taxable items in town and is comprised of the valuations of all real estate, motor vehicles and personal property. The rise in the 2015 Grand List was powered in large measure by a 27.79 percent rise in personal property, Assessor Shawna M. Baron said Wednesday. The sharp growth in personal property was the result of the installation of a new gas transmission line by Algonquin Gas Co., Baron said.

The rise in real estate valuations rose by just a small amount, .54 percent. The increase in real

estate was held down “a little bit” by a settlement of a challenge to the assessment on Pilgrim Manor, Baron said. The settlement resulted in a $2.8 million revision, which Baron described on Thursday as “sizable.”

Motor vehicle valuations rose by 2.06 percent, Baron said. But that number is clouded by the continuing uncertainty created by the new computer system installed last year at the Department of Motor Vehicles. A glitch in the system has wrongly classified a number of vehicles as not registered, when in fact they are.

The motor-vehicle valuations “are in line with those in a normal year,” Baron said. However, “With everything that is going on with the DMV, assessors in general are concerned about how accurate the data from the DMV is,” Baron added.

Another wrinkle has been added to the assessor’s role by a new state law that says “no taxing district can tax a motor vehicle at more than 32 mils per year,” Baron said.

Public Act 15-244, which legislators said was intended to ensure “tax fairness,” will reduce the tax rate on motor vehicles to 29.36 mils next year.

Baron declined to characterize the rise in the Grand List, letting the numbers speak for themselves. “It is what it is,” she said. For his part, Town Manager Anthony J. Salvatore described the growth in the Grand List as something hat is very positive and “something we are very pleased with.” It is also “something that I will be taking into consideration as we prepare our budget,” the manager said.

Salvatore and Director of Finance Marianne Sylvester are two-thirds of the way through their review of the individual departmental budgets, Salvatore said Wednesday.

Even as they review the departmental budgets as they shape the overall General Government budgets, Salvatore and Sylvester have been confronted with a new challenge: yet another reduction in state aid in this year’s budget. Late last year as officials continued to deal with a sluggish state economy and a persistent budget deficit, the state reduced aid to cities and towns in the 2015-16 budget.

Cromwell’s share of state aid was reduced by $73,000.

Last week, as the governor presented an austerity budget to the General Assembly, Gov. Malloy’s administration announced a second round of reductions. The latest reductions, which totaled nearly $90,000, came in two of the same areas as the initial cuts: Education Cost Sharing and public transportation funds, Sylvester said.

“These additional cuts make (budget) revenues very tight,” Sylvester said Wednesday.

That said, the town still continues to be “cautiously optimistic” that it will be able to handle these latest reductions, Sylvester said.

Salvatore would not speculate about what impact any additional future cuts might have. Instead, he agreed about being cautiously optimistic, and said, “We will budget conservatively.”

Wednesday night, the Town Council adopted a schedule for its budget review. The review will begin Monday, Feb. 29.