City Budget Set: Spends 2.7% More, 1% Higher Taxes

The Board of Estimate and Taxation on Monday unanimously approved a $288.2 million budget that increases property taxes by a bit more than 1 percent and spending by 2.7 percent.

The board stuck by its earlier decision to provide the city Education Department with a budget that would result in either layoffs or limiting wages and benefits for various school unions (an option that may still result in some layoffs). No settlement has been reached between city school officials and the unions.

"We have a budget that's going to come in with a tax increase of about 1 percent, which is one of the lowest that we've had in decades," said the board's chairman, Friedrich N. Wilms. "We're keeping our Triple-A debt rating, we're maintaining our fiscal integrity, and we're maintaining our programs and services. We haven't had to lop off a lot of stuff."

"With regards to the schools ... certainly if the unions agree to a one-year wage freeze, that would be very helpful in drastically minimizing layoffs there," Wilms continued. "We've achieved with what I think is the best possible outcome as we're dealing with this very, very severe recession." (For more of Wilms' statement, see the first video accompanying this article.)

City Finance Director Thomas Hamilton said annual property taxes would go up $62 for a fairly typical home in Norwalk, which he defined as a single-family house in the Fourth Taxing District having an assessed value at the "median" for that district (meaning 50 percent of homes in the district carried a higher assessment and 50 percent a lower one).

For the Fourth Taxing District, that's a home with an assessed value of $287,350, which currently pays $5,913. That home would pay $5,975 in taxes for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, a $62 increase, or just over 1 percent.

At almost the last minute—actually, within a few hours of when the board started its meeting—city officials received word from the Connecticut Conference of Muncipalities that the budget expected to be approved by the state Legislature and signed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy would give Norwalk about $1 million more than was expected.

Most of that extra money comes from a "Statewide Property Tax Relief Grant" expected to be passed by the Legislature. Norwalk's share of that grant would be $634,842, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities estimates.

Also, the governor had proposed eliminating the state's Payment in Lieu of Taxes for Manufacturers, Machinery and Equipment program, known as "PILOT MME", but it is now expected to remain in the budget, Hamilton said.

Michael Kolman, a member of the board, suggested that the city take the additional million dollars in unexpected state aid and spend it on the city schools. That idea was rejected by all other members of the board. Mayor Richard A. Moccia pointed out that the new state aid program was titled, in part, "property tax relief" and was meant to reduce taxes, not to spend more.

Moccia said the city Education Department received a larger spending increase than the average of all other city departments in the upcoming year's budget. (For more of Moccia's statement, see the second video accompanying this article.)

"Remember, there's going to be a dramatic increase in taxes on the state level," Moccia said. "We don't need to pile it on."