The Eye On
Of
interest on this page are issues regarding Revaluation, Property Tax Reform,
the MDC, Town Budget, Binding Arbitration, and other items Taxes affecting
taxation in West Hartford. The West
Hartford Taxpayers Association will be posting information, updates and press
releases here. Most recent will be posted first.
Our 2008-09 tax calculator is now available
exclusively from the West Hartford Taxpayers Association as a service to help
you see what your particular tax will be in 2008-09: Calculate your property tax based on the
2008-09 proposed budget and mill rate using this calculator (Excel
spreadsheet) and the assessment of your property from the town property records system. Just plug in the 2005 and 2006 assessments
(pre and post revaluation) shown for your property on the town property records
system, and the calculator will show you what your tax will be with this
proposed budget which is expected to tax us at a 37.09 mill rate. The
town of
A list of Town’s Mill
rates is available at the State of CT website or you can download and view the XCel file from here and if you sort the file you will find that
-
Education Cost Sharing (ECS) shortfall memo –
-
Interesting
comments on director’s salaries and benefits which were posted by someone commenting on a Hartford
Courant article on May 6 (see article below).
-
West Hartford School rankings
based on schooldigger.com and test scores.
- Petition drive
information
– Signatures are being collected to force another budget referendum. Signatures
must be submitted by July 31st.
- Revised Forecast
by Robert Sisk
– “As you can see, with the exception of a $1M reduction in BOE personnel
costs, the changes made are mostly one time adjustments (cancel leaf pick-up,
sell two parcels of land) which reduce operating expenses or increase non-tax
revenue but don’t address the underlying problem – fringe benefit costs that
are rising 2.5 times the rate of inflation. Hence, the risks to the town remain
the same and the analysis conclusions are unchanged” – 07/02/08
- Hartford Courant article – West Hartford
Budget Cuts Criticized
– 06/27/08
- West Hartford Referendum Results and political party
participation
- Hartford Courant article – West Hartford
School Board Cuts 19 Staff Positions – 06/26/08
Board of Education Budget Reductions
Board of Education Budget Reductions
by Object Code
- Hartford Courant article – West Hartford
Cuts Rejected Budget, Adopts New One – 06/25/08 – The Town Council adopted a new budget which represents a 5.5%
tax increase and a 37.09 mill rate. They cut $1.41 million from the education
budget and made $1.85 million in cuts which along with a $615,000 PILOT grant
shortfall and $55,000 interest income adjustment reduction translates into
$1.18 million in Townwide reductions.
- Mayor’s Budget Reductions
Presentation
– 06/24/08
- Hartford Courant article – West Hartford
Council To Review Defeated Budget Plan – 06/19/08
- West Hartford Referendum results
- Hartford Courant article - West Hartford Residents Defeat Budget Plan At Referendum – 06/18/08
- Hartford Courant article - West Hartford Budget Referendum Is Today – 06/17/08
- The official ballot question on June 17
will be:
Are you in favor of the budget ordinance as adopted on April 22?
You will then be able to check off Yes or No. If residents vote YES, this means that they are in favor of the adopted budget. If residents vote NO, this means that they reject the budget and would like the Town Council to go back and make some budget reductions. If 15% of the registered voters do not vote then the budget remains unchanged. (Chapter 7, section 11 of the Town Charter)
- West Hartford News article – Board of Ed To Refund Town $500,000 – 06/10/08
- Hartford Courant article - West Hartford School Board Returning $500,000 To Town – 06/04/08
- West Hartford News article - Town Council votes to replace parking meters – 06/03/08
- Hartford Courant article - West Hartford Sets June 17 Budget Vote – 05/28/08
The $215.9 million municipal budget calls for a 7
percent increase in spending. If you recall this was in the 2008-09 adopted budget – “Property Tax Impact and Mill Rate - The Town Manager's Proposed Budget
called for property tax revenue of $182,680,557 and a mill rate of 38.11,
resulting in a tax increase of 8.9% for the median residential property. The
Town Council adopted expenditure reductions totaling $677,512, revenue
enhancements totaling $1,406,268, and increased the property tax collection
rate by one tenth of one percent to 99.0%, which equates to $180,000 in
additional revenue. The Town Council
adopted a mill rate of 37.64, which results in a tax increase of 7.6% for the
median residential taxpayer.
-Hartford Courant article - West Hartford To Hold Referendum On Budget Proposal –
05/21/08
- Interesting comments on director’s
salaries and benefits
which were posted by someone commenting on a Hartford Courant article on May 6
(see article below).
- The budget
petition drive is completed. Well over 3000 signatures were
collected. As of Friday (05/16/08) - the Town Clerk verified about 2400
signatures and only 6% of registered voters signatures were needed to
force a referendum (2264 signatures). As signatures were being gathered,
the reaction of the public was that they were pretty fed up with this type of
budget increase. Revaluation aside, cumulatively we have already seen a
36% increase in taxes in
-Hartford Courant article - Budget Referendum Pending In West Hartford –
05/16/08 - The local
taxpayers' group has submitted petitions with enough signatures to force a
budget referendum in June but the town clerk must make the count official. "Assuming that at least 2,264 are verified,"
Town Clerk Essie Labrot said Thursday, "they've gone over the required
number." (The WHTA has – as of
05/15/08 submitted 336 pages of signatures, with most pages containing 10
signatures to a page) We checked with the Town Clerk’s office – and as of
4:30 on 05/15/08, 1851 signatures had been verified of the 2666 that they
claimed to have received. On Friday
05/16/08 more signed petitions were still being submitted.
- Hartford Courant article – West Hartford Budget Vote Campaign Progresses -
05/06/08 - 2,300 signatures
are needed by May 19, which is 6 percent of the town's registered voters. After
the required number of signatures are collected, then a referendum will be held
around June 10 or June 17. (Actually we need 2264 signatures)
- Hartford Courant article - West Hartford Taxpayer Group To Seek Budget
Referendum - 04/25/08
- Hartford Courant article - Budget Proposal Backed By West Hartford Town Council -
04/23/08
West Hartford
Town Council votes to adopt a new budget -
The $215.9 million municipal budget calls for a 7 percent increase in
spending. The budget will require a property tax rate of 37.64 mills.
- Mayor Slifka’s budget presentation and adopted budget summary. 04/22/08
- WHTA Ad in West Hartford News –
04/16/08
- Robert Sisk has made some revisions to his initial
budget forecast and fine tuned some demographic information in his Town of West Hartford
2008-2013 Budget Forecast – 04/11/08 – He includes the concept of “Tiebout
Sorting” and shows how the ratio of tax-paying non-school households supporting
each public school household will slip away as those people move out of town
due to higher taxes. The result is that
more non-school households are replaced with public school households creating
increased demands on services but the associated tax base does not increase
resulting in purely demand driven increases in property taxes.
- WHTA Ad in West Hartford News
which includes spending forecast information – 04/06/08
- Robert Sisk’s presentation of the Town of West Hartford
2008-2013 Budget Forecast – 04/04/08 – Property tax increase of 44% by 2013
if we continue on this path of tax and spend. You must read this analysis.
Thanks to Mr. Sisk for providing this analysis.
- Hartford Courant reports on the Town Budget public hearing –
04/04/08
- Administration’s response to WHTA ad in West Hartford News
(Fat Facts) – 04/02/08 Our ad was taken out prior to changes made in the
education budget. At no time did WHTA advocate for cutting funds from the
- Hartford Courant reports on the adoption of the School Board budget
by the Board of Education – 04/02/08
- Board Adopted Budget $ 125,360,572 6.42% - 04/01/08 - Adopted school budget.
- Open Choice Financial Impact Memo by Chip Ward – 04/01/08 –
The administration claims the Open Choice program is not a financial burden on
the district.
- West
Hartford School rankings based on schooldigger.com and test scores.
- West Hartford Taxpayers Association sent a freedom
of Information request to the School Board requesting information about Open
Choice students – here was the
request and here was the response. Basically our school administration does not
know how much it costs to educate Open Choice students who may be using
remedial resources or special programming – they only know how much they
receive from the Open Choice program ($300,000) and furthermore they do not
seem to want to do any tracking to find out if this program is beneficial or what
the costs of educating these kids are to our own budget.
- Tax Fat
Facts – Some items of interest pulled out of this
- Board of Education
Spending Trends – Graphic example of spending, enrollment and
salaries.
- An Article from the
- An Article from the Hartford Advocate – Let Them Eat Cake
- How much tax money does West Hartford 's
Board of Education spend on catered meals for itself? They won't tell us. – 03/27/08 (Actually they now claim it is
$8600 for 88 food instances)
- An
Article from West Hartford News – Increase
In Open Choice Expenses Questioned –Over the last few years, the number of
children brought into town from Hartford for education has risen - from 58
students in 2005 to 87 this year, with an expected 91 students next year - but
state funding for the program has also changed, from $2,000 to $2,500 per open
choice student. 03/25/08
Or per
pupil cost is $11,030 per
student per year
- An Article from the Hartford Advocate - Take a (Tax) Hike, Folks- Storm clouds are building on the West
Hartford budget horizon - Bob Perry owns and runs Pop's
Deli on Sedgwick Road
- An Article
from West Hartford News - Proposed
town budget has 7 percent increase - 03/18/08
-Do you have a
question regarding this year's budget? Town and Board of Education staff and
elected officials will answer residents' questions during a special budget
forum to be presented and televised by the League of Women Voters and
You can submit a question for this budget
forum by going to the West Hartford Cable TV
website and submitting your question:
- The
Town has made available the proposed 2008-2009 proposed budget documents. – 03/13/08
·
2008-09 Proposed Town Budget
·
Capital Improvement Plan 2009-2020
·
Town Manager’s Budget Presentation
- An Article from the Hartford Courant – Town
Budget Proposal: Spending Up 7 Percent -The proposed town budget is $216
million. Town Manager Jim Francis presented an overall education, municipal and
capital budget that would increase spending by about $14 million, up from the
current 2007-08 budget of about $201.7 million.
The
spending plan includes Superintendent David P. Sklarz's proposed $125.5 million
budget, a 6.5 percent increase from the current school budget of $117.8 million
and a $73.4 million municipal budget, which also represents a 6.5 percent
increase over the current $68.9 million budget. New mill rate proposed is 38.11
and the current mill rate is 38.53, but we are in the 2nd year of a 5 year
property revaluation phase-in so the lower mill rate will be applied to a
higher home value. Add that to increased
spending in this budget and it nets a significant increase in property tax for
most people. – 03/12/08
- An Article from the Hartford Courant – School
Budget Hike Sought -The proposed budget represents a $7.7 million, or
6.53 percent, increase over the current budget of $117.8 million – 03/05/08
- The
proposed 2008-09 school budget is
available online. 03/05/08
·
Other Town's Budget Increases
- Link to Connecticut Conference of Municipalities webpage about binding
arbitration reform.
- Excel spreadsheet From the State Department of
Education showing West
Hartford Open Choice by School – These are the number of kids by school
that we take in through the Open Choice program (i.e. other kids from other
school districts). Please note that we are looking to renovate/expand Bugbee,
Braeburn, Duffy and
- An
email to Town Manager Jim Francis,(Jan. 24, 2008) from Councilman Visconti,
requesting some answers regarding the use of credit cards and other town
expenses. Also here is December 19, 2008 Meeting Minutes of the Finance and Budget
Committee.
- Statement
From The West Hartford Taxpayer’s Association In Response To The Recent
Approval By The Board Of Education For New School Additions and
Renovations - 01/17/08
- An Article from the Hartford Courant – Push Is On For Budget Support –
01/17/08 – Board of Education Chairman, Bruce Putterman is firing off e-mails
to parents asking for their continued support in the upcoming budget debate.
Expecting a fight from the taxpayers in
- An Article from the Hartford Courant – Schools Vote Pleases Parents –
01/16/08 - The school board unanimously approved plans to renovate or add new
space at four overcrowded elementary schools.
The session capped weeks of debate between parents and school officials
on how best to ease overcrowding at Bugbee, Braeburn, Duffy and
- An Article from the Hartford Courant – Mayor: Town’s Success Threatened –
01/09/08 –
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Please take the time to see
the 2007 referendum and budget analysis on our Budget Information page.
- WHTA has made available archived information from 2007 budget referendum.
WHTA is providing the public an Microsoft excel worksheet
to calculate their 2007 tax bill for their home. Just plug in the values for
the old property assessment and then the new property assessment and the worksheet
calculate out the rest. The new mill
rate for 2007 taxes is 38.63 and the phase in for revaluation is still over a 5
year period. For the first year 25% of
the old assessment is added on to the old assessment (2005 assessment times
1.25, only if your new assessment has gone up 25% or higher) and the balance
between that and the new assessment is divided up into 4 equal amounts and
spread out over the remaining 4 years. Those new assessment amounts will be
applied to whatever mill rates are decided in subsequent years which will also
depend on spending levels.