Town Budget Information
Current
Town Mill Rate is 36.97
-
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.
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.
Some
things to think about:
·
We’ve had a 36%
increase in our taxes since 2003!
·
At the rate we are
going, YOUR tax bill will go up another 44% in 5 years! This budget adds 7% to your tax bill !
·
With this 5 year
phased-in revaluation you already have a built-in yearly increase until 2012.
·
This budget applies
37.64 Mills to your property value. We were promised that the Mill rate would
drop to 29.17 Mills after the 5 year phase in! That’s not likely with continued
higher total Town spending ($14 million more this year alone!)
·
We were promised Tax
Relief during the last Town election.
·
We were promised Tax
Relief with
·
Ask why we are
spending $400,000 to replace new parking meters in town and new garage lighting
at
·
Ask why energy
saving LED lighting wasn’t included in the initial plans for
·
Ask why they cut the
Quest program last year and then turned around and gave the school Superintendent
a raise to make his salary $188,000 plus benefits. He is retiring next year!
================================
Information from the town as of 06/13/08 is as follows:
OVERALL GENERAL FUND BUDGET DEVELOPMENT
|
|
Adopted FY 2008 Budget |
Proposed FY 2008 2009 Budget |
Adopted FY 2008 2009 Budget |
% increase |
|
Board of Education |
$ 117,796,941 |
$125,492,384 |
$124,884,716 |
6.02% |
|
Town |
68,884,339 |
73,390,106 |
74,390,542 |
7.99% |
|
Capital Financing |
15,085,036 |
16,897,478 |
16,637,478 |
10.29% |
|
Total Appropriation |
$ 201,766,316 |
$215,779,968 |
$215,912,738 |
7.01% |
|
Less: Non-Tax Revenue |
33,073,676 |
33,099,411 |
35,315,961 |
|
|
Property Tax Required |
$ 168,692,640 |
$182,680,557 |
$180,596,777 |
7.05% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mill Rate Required |
38.63 |
38.11 |
37.64 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
Town
Manager's Adopted 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.
The proposed 2008-2009 proposed town budget documents
·
2008-09 Proposed Town Budget
·
Capital Improvement Plan 2009-2020
·
Town Manager’s Budget Presentation
The proposed 2008-09
school budget is available online. Here are the adopted budget changes that were passed at the April 1 BOE
meeting. Board Adopted Budget $ 125,360,572 6.42%
·
Other Town's Budget Increases
The Town
Council Budget and Finance Committee Meeting Minutes can be found here
Find the
Town Charter Online here
Our
thanks to Bill Generous of Windsor, who does analysis of referendums in Towns
across Connecticut, for this Excel worksheet that he compiled that includes tax
changes for each town in CT for Fiscal Year 2007-08. More detailed
information is provided for referendum towns such as spending changes and round
by round referendum results. He included more information in this
spreadsheet than the typical taxpayer would want to see, but includes it for
the benefit of those very few that want to see such things as the actual
derivation of their town's home tax change or overall tax change.
He notes
that $33,714,187 phased-in net assessment growth for Blue Back
development was not included as General Fund revenue and hence did not lower the mill rate.
This revenue was included in a Special Revenue Fund that will be used to pay off some of the borrowing that
development of Blue Back required.
Bottom
line, Mr. Generous reports this: (items in green are WHTA comments)
-.08%
Tax Rate Change (accounts for both mill rate and appreciation changes)
3.81% Residential Real Estate Tax Rate Change
(Yes, most homeowners saw a 4.54% increase)
1.32% Citizen (Residential Real Estate +
Motor Vehicle) Tax Rate Change
1.40% Revaluation Only Tax Rate Boost Toward
Citizens
0.66% Non-Appreciation Grand List Growth
1.37% Non-Appreciation Grand List Growth
(with Blue Back improvements)
The
Here is how to calculate next year's
residential real estate tax rate change for all homes combined:
FY 2007-08 Mill Rate: 38.63
FY 2008-09 Mill Rate: Unknown but 36.72 used in this example
FY 2008-09 Residential Real Estate Aggregate
Phased-In Appreciation: 10.463%
Home Effective Tax Rate Change = 5.00%
(1.0500 = 1.10463 x 36.72 / 38.63)
Individual home tax increases will vary
depending on the appreciation figure for each home as well as exemption changes
and tax credits or freezes that may be applicable for some homeowners.
Relative to tax and spending changes in other
towns,
79 towns had at least one town budget
referendum this past year. 52%
of town budget referendums failed. The median voter turnout
for a referendum was 20.5%. The aggregate spending increase for all
referendum towns this year was 4.85%. The aggregate tax rate
change for all referendum towns this year was 2.02%. That aggregate tax
rate change, along with the addition of new taxable property, led to towns
billing out 3.72% more in current year property taxes for Fiscal Year 2007-08,
which is 2.06% less than last year's billed tax increase of 5.78% for
referendum towns. The infusion of increased state aid to towns led to
lower than usual property tax increases this year. (And
not all towns used money targeted for schools towards their school systems)
I [Bill Generous] still think
Congratulations
on holding the line on overall tax increases in West Hartford this year (thanks goes to the West Hartford taxpayers who banded
together on the referendum and made their elected officials lower the increases
in proposed taxes!). Given that next year is not a
municipal election year, it will be a difficult feat to repeat. You
need to work a little harder to achieve the results the town of
2007 Tax Information:
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.
As a
result of the referendum held on June 12, the Town Council came back with a new
budget and trimmed it down a little more, as well as made adjustments to
anticipated revenues from the state’s trash authority lawsuit and town surplus
money. The council added
nearly $1.7 million in revenue to the budget making a total
adjustment of nearly $3.3 million. Spending only
increased 2.66%. As a result we will now see a 4.54% increase in resident’s property tax bill with a mill rate of 38.63.
The overall Town budget represented no increase in tax revenue levels
over last year’s budget, and stands at $201.7 million. The revaluation will be phased in over 5
years. The 4.54%
increase represents the increase due to revaluation phase-in and the shift of
the tax burden from commercial to residential property. The Education budget stands at $117.8 million representing a 3.8%
increase in spending.
Here is
the Mayor’s Budget presentation.
Previously:
Tuesday, 04/24/07, The Town
Council voted to adopt the budget, which represents a 6.6% increase to everyone’s tax bill.
Proposed new mill rate will be 39.39 mills with a 5
year phase in of new assessments. The budget calls for a 3.48 % increase in
additional spending before deducting anticipated revenue from the state, which
has been optimistically inflated by $4.85 million more than originally
proposed, so the town can claim a 1.94% change in budget from last year! Your taxes
will go up 6.6% and there is NO guarantee that spending in subsequent years will
allow our mill rate to drop as promised to 29.17 mills! The cuts made to this
budget were cuts in proposed increases, not real cuts to line items that should
be reduced. The Town Council has mandated an Education budget of $118.3 million representing
a 4.2% increase
over the current $113.5 million Education budget.
The 2006/07 mill rate was set at 46.19 mills. Proposed new mill rate for 2007 will be 38.63 mills
with a 5 year phase in of new assessments.
A
mill is equal to $1.00 of tax for each $1,000 of assessment. Assessed value in
Historical
West Hartford Tax increases:
2001 - 4.0%
2002 - 5.6%
2003 - 5.6%
2004 - 6.3%
2005 - 4.3%
2006 - 6.0%
2007 - 4.5 %
_______
+ 36.3%
in the past 7 years alone!
Historical
(Numbers to 2006-07 for BOE budget
provided by Harry Captain)
2002-03 - 7.18%
90.96 Million
2003-04 - 4.83%
95.35 Million
2004-05 - 5.75% 100.84
Million
2005-06 - 5.66% 106.55
Million
2006-07 - 6.51% 113.48
Million
2007-08 - 3.80% 117.80
Million
33.73 % in the
past 6 years alone ! Averaging 5.62%
increase for the past 6 years !
Proposed 2008-09 –
6.53% 125.5 Million
=====================
Historical Information Regarding Revaluation in
·
April – 2004 The West Hartford Town Council
voted 6-3 to adopt a budget that would have resulted in an average 20% increase in taxes on the
residential homeowner because of the 2004 revaluation, which would have
shifted more of the tax burden on the homeowner from the business taxpayers in
· After the 2004-2005 budget was adopted, the State Legislature passed a bill which allowed communities that were required to do revaluation to postpone that revaluation for up to three years.
· The West Hartford Town Council voted to postpone the revaluation and instead voted to adopt a budget that would have raised taxes on all real estate by 9.8%. This was by a 6-3 vote of the council.
· The West Hartford Taxpayers Association sponsored a referendum on the budget and the vote on the budget was scheduled for early June 2004.
·
Before the vote on the referendum was held the
State Legislature passed bills that increased state funds coming to
·
The WHTA won the referendum in June, 2004 and
the Council had to redo the budget. They adopted a budget that used all the
money received from the state as tax relief and then only cut spending by .5%. This budget was adopted on a 9-0
basis. The leaders of both of the political parties stated that if this budget
was not adopted that essential services could not be provided to the community,
but they also promised to address the imbalances that lead to the original
20% increase.
· The WHTA sponsored another referendum on the budget because the organization had little faith the political leaders had the will to deal with the imbalances that would lead to a major tax increase when revaluation was actually done.
· The voters accepted on faith what their political leaders promised, and the budget with a 6.3% increase was adopted based on the referendum results (55% for and 45% against).
·
Other communities that faced the same problem as
West Hartford, concerning revaluation, were Avon,
· West Hartford, during the grace period for revaluation, has continued to increase spending at a an alarming rate for the town budget, particularly with regard to the School Budget, which has gone up at an average of 6% in the past 5 years.
· No planning or addressing the imbalances on the part of our elected leaders has occurred during this grace period. Instead there has been a push to increase programs, such as adding new preschool programs and resurfacing the ball fields with Astroturf, and stadium lights costing $300,000 per school, and the cost of $240,000 for flexible start times. Binding arbitration has taken control away from the town and municipal salaries and benefits continue to rise.
· The increase in residential property values that has occurred during the 3 year grace period will result in an increase in the average residential tax bill. The value of West Hartford Real Estate alone has increased over 15% in the past 3 years (reported in the Courant 3/19/06). New costs will essentially be buried in the revaluation process if we do not examine the raise in taxation carefully. While it is good that our property values have gone up, our mill rate should really go down to about 25 to generate the same tax revenue as before the revaluation. The desired scenario is to live in a community that has high property values and low mill rates.
· The only proposal that the Town Council has come up with to deal with this massive tax increase is to delay its implementation by having it phased-in over 5 years. This procedure was authorized by the State Legislature; proposes to be an administrative nightmare; and doesn’t really buy the homeowner anything because they still have to come up with the higher tax, perhaps even causing double digit taxes.
· Spending has not been addressed by either the Council or the Board of Education. Last year it was quoted in the newspaper that the Board of Education could not think of a single cut that can be made to the education budget and was looking to the Town Council for direction.
· This thinking that dominates our elected leaders will guarantee that with in the next few years that the average tax bill of $5300 will be doubled over $10,000 and West Hartford will be an unaffordable community for so many of our residents. The housing market has already a experienced a slow down since the revaluation in October 2006.
·
The mill rate of 46.19 mills puts West Hartford
in the tax class with communities like