Town Council to vote Monday on 5% tax increase

 

The Town Council will meet on Monday to adopt a budget that would raise the mill rate by 5.1%, setting up a debate over school reserves, deferred infrastructure spending, and the town’s long-term fiscal pressures.

For a house with a $300,000 market value — and assessed value of $210,000 (70%) — the taxes would increase by $338 to $6,953. 

 
Expect a vigorous debate and possibly some last-minute changes if deadlocks emerge.

The proposed budget would increase the mill rate by 1.61 mills, from 31.5 to 33.11 mills.

There are several fundamental tensions running through the budget debate. The special meeting is at 6 p.m. and will be on Enfield Television channel on YouTube. Special meetings typically do not include time for public comment.

 
The Democrats hold a supermajority on the council, with eight of the 11 seats. Theoretically, that should allow them to adopt a budget easily, but Democrats do not necessarily move in lockstep and disagreements could emerge.

School funding debate likely

One issue centers on whether a school board reserve account of about $1.9 million should be used to offset the tax increase.

Republicans may recommend using the reserves to reduce the mill rate. School officials and some Democrats argue that using reserves for tax relief effectively reduces the district’s financial cushion. Generally, reserves are intended to address unexpected costs. Without that cushion, the school system could face emergency cuts or seek a special appropriation from the council.

School officials also argue that the reserves may not be entirely available because a substantial portion may already be needed to stabilize the district’s self-insurance fund. 

School officials will likely argue to the council before the budget that after factoring in roughly $1.1 million in additional state aid, a further $1.9 million reduction tied to reserve use would leave the remaining local increase insufficient to fully cover contractual costs, including teacher agreements.

Another expected area of tension on Monday will be capital improvements. The town has accumulated a large backlog of equipment, vehicle and infrastructure replacements and upgrades, according to the town's budget.

Deferring those expenses, or reducing upgrades to a minimum, has long been a way to limit budget increases. But that strategy cannot continue indefinitely, and pressure is building to replace aging vehicles and equipment.

Budget storm clouds on the horizon 

Hanging over the debate are two related issues.

Homeowners will receive their new property assessments this fall. The revaluation is expected to shift more of the tax burden from commercial to residential property, potentially increasing homeowners' taxes even if next year’s budget were flat. The revaluation impact will appear in the 2028 fiscal year tax rate. The new budget, which takes effect in July, is the 2027 budget. 

The council is also expected to seek a referendum in November for an approximately $90 million school bond to fund the town’s share of a roughly $500 million elementary school replacement project. The proposal could turn into a referendum on taxes as much as school construction.

Enfield is facing pressures similar to those of many other communities. Since COVID, the value of commercial property has weakened in many places, shifting more of the tax burden onto homeowners. This is a statewide, and in many ways a national issue that is contributing to tax increases well above inflation in many communities.

Monday's expected debate was previewed in the budget workshops.

 
Mayor Gina Cekala, a Democrat, told Republicans during the May 6 workshop: “You will not get a vote from me for cutting the Board of Education. I'm not willing to cut staff, even though I'd love the overall number to be lower and nobody wants to raise the mill rate.”

“I don’t want to be the one who continues that neglect and cutting, that process we keep repeating, where next year is worse, and the year after that is worse, and so on,” she said.

At the May 7 workshop, Council member and State Rep. Carol Hall, a Republican, said her party’s goal is to limit the tax increase to between a quarter-mill and a half-mill.

Hall tied that directly to the expected school referendum.

“We’ve got to hold that mill rate as low as we can if we expect to get a referendum passed,” Hall said.
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