ANSONIA – Mayor Frank Tyszka said his proposed budget could contain a mill rate increase.
“We’re going to get hit with a big tax bill, and I apologize, but there will be information coming out on this,” Tyszka said during the Jan. 13 meeting of the Ansonia Board of Aldermen.
Tyszka said a tax increase is coming because of budget decisions made under his predecessor, David Cassetti. Tyszka has said the city is running at a deficit, citing as evidence the city’s use of its fund balance to bolster past budgets.
City officials have not yet shared budget documents with the public. Under the city’s charter, Tyszka is required to submit a budget proposal to the board of apportionment and taxation (BOAT) by the second Monday in February.
Tyszka said some revenue sources in the current budget, under line items including “use of future revenue” and “fuel cell revenue projection,” ended up being funded through money from the city’s sale of its sewer system (WPCA) in 2024. Together, those line items total about $6.5 million.
“There’s no fuel cell that’s generating $1.3 million. That was a lie. There’s no future revenues, that’s a lie,” Tyszka said.
Kurt Miller, who was hired as the city’s budget director by Cassetti in 2020, has said in past years that “future revenue” could come from economic development projects, including a fuel cell project on North Main Street and redevelopment of vacant downtown factories.
However, in June 2025, Miller said that about $17.6 million from the sewer sale was either used or planned to be used to fund “use of future revenue” line items in three city budgets.
The Valley Indy emailed Miller for a response to Tyszka’s statement but did not hear back.
WPCA Sale Scrutiny
The current budget was adopted by a Republican-led Board of Aldermen under Cassetti’s administration in June 2025. It raised the mill rate 2.06 mills, from 26.49 mills to 28.55 mills.
City Democrats, including Tyszka and members of the newly elected Board of Aldermen, have been critics of that budget for what they say is an over-reliance on the city’s fund balance.
Cassetti administration officials said last year that the WPCA sale prevented large mill rate increases required to maintain and repair sewer facilities. The sale money was meant to be used to keep taxes stable while the city works on getting new revenue sources online, officials said, including a fuel cell project on North Main Street.
In financial plans laid out to a bond ratings agency around the time of the sale, city officials under Cassetti said they plan to use money from the city’s fund balance in budgets through 2030, while phasing in tax increases and expecting revenues from new developments.
More broadly, Cassetti administration officials have argued that the city dips into its fund balance in order to make up for inadequate support for the state while keeping taxes stable. The city’s bond rating is AA-, they point out, which indicates a “very strong capacity to meet financial commitments.”
When Cassetti first took office in 2013, he and the Republicans said the fund balance was too large, accusing previous administrations of overtaxing residents.
However, city Democrats have argued that the city’s budgeting practices are unsustainable. Democratic state Rep. Kara Rochelle fought on the House floor last year for a bill that referred Ansonia to a state finance advisory panel, citing concerns over Cassetti-era budgeting practices.
Tyszka, citing similar concerns, campaigned last year on a pledge to eliminate the city’s reliance on its fund balance much faster than the Cassetti administration had planned.
Although it’s early in the budget season, a budget with a large mill rate increase could trigger a referendum. Under charter changes passed by Cassetti’s administration, a budget adopted by the Board of Aldermen requires voter approval if the increase in “net taxes to be collected” – the total number of tax dollars the city expects to bring in – is higher than three percent.
That provision triggered three referendums last year, all of which saw voters reject proposed budgets by wide margins. The Cassetti-aligned Board of Aldermen ultimately adopted a budget that kept the city’s spending flat, avoiding the need for a fourth referendum.
That budget increased the schools’ budget by about 2.8 percent.
Tyszka said certain expenditures – including an annual Memorial Day parade and charitable donations – will remain in his budget proposal.
“We will have a (Memorial Day) parade, we will be giving money to some of the kids for summer programs, and we will give to United Way, we will give to TEAM,” Tyszka said.
The deadline for Tyszka to submit a budget proposal to BOAT this year is Feb. 9.