DERBY — The City of Derby is putting together a budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
It is more difficult to calculate your tax bill this year because the budget includes new property assessments from a state-mandated revaluation of properties. Those assessments, along with the mill rate, are the numbers needed to calculate tax bills.
The average property assessment increased 61 percent, according to city officials. About 250 homeowners, or 8 percent of all residential properties, saw assessments increase by at least 100 percent.
Click here for oodles of data and spreadsheets showing the old and new assessments.
In order to avoid a large tax increase — and to avoid losing state reimbursement to the city connected to motor vehicle taxes — the Derby Board of Aldermen & Alderwomen voted in February to phase-in the new property assessments at 20 percent per year.
On March 10, Mayor Joseph DiMartino presented a budget to the Derby Board of Apportionment & Taxation (informally called ‘BOAT’ or the tax board). The tax board has until the last business day in April to adopt a budget, which includes estimated revenues, expenses and the mill rate.
The mayor’s budget included a proposed mill rate of 39.1. That is a 9.5 percent decrease from the current mill rate of 43.2.
The Valley Indy published a story March 12 showing what tax bills could look like if there was no phase-in of the new assessments, but did not do the math to show what the tax bills could look like in year one of the phase-in.
That information was added after the DiMartino administration pointed out the information was confusing and misleading.
They’re correct. I noted there was a phase-in, but left readers on their own to figure it out. This column was sent to the Derby finance office for an extra level of fact-checking to prevent additional confusion.
For clarity, here are the steps property owners need to take in order to figure out their potential tax bills. The word potential is important here because the tax board has not voted to adopt the budget, which means the potential for the numbers to change still very much exists.
How To Calculate Tax Bills In Derby
Step Zero: For comparison purposes, find your last property tax bill. If you don’t have it, look up your old assessment from the city’s website. Take your old assessment, divide it by 1,000 and multiply by the current mill rate of 43.2.
Step 1: Find your old assessment. Find your new assessment. Subtract your old assessment from your new assessment.
* Again, your old and new assessments are available from the city’s website.
Step 2: Take the dollar amount you arrived at in step 1 and divide it by five.
Step 3: Add your answer from step 2 and add it to your OLD assessment.
Step 4: Take your answer from step 3, divide it by 1,000 and multiply it by the new, proposed mill rate of 39.1.
* This answer is your new, potential tax bill for next year only.
Step 5: Compare your answer in step 4 with your answer from step zero to determine how much, or less, you’ll pay in taxes next year (and only next year).
Using the formula above, here’s a look at The Valley Indy reporter’s house in Derby.
Step 0: My house on Hawthorne Avenue was previously assessed at $112,000. So, $112,000 divided by 1000 and then multiplied by the current mill rate of 43.2 is $4,838.40. That is my most current tax bill.
Step 1: My new assessment is $255,000. Subtracting my old assessment of $112,000 from $255,000 gets me an assessment increase of $143,000.
Step 2: $143,000 divided by five years is $28,600.
Step 3: $28,600 plus my old assessment of $112,000 is $140,600. This means that $140,600 is my new assessment for next year and next year only.
Step 4: My new assessment of $140,600 divided by 1,000 and then multiplied by the proposed mill rate of 39.1 gets me $5,496.46*. *This is my new, potential tax bill.
Step 5: My current tax bill was $4,838.40. My potential tax bill with the newly proposed mill rate is $5,496.46.
This means if the budget under consideration was adopted today, as-is, I would pay an additional $658.06 during the fiscal year starting July 1 and ending June 30, 2027.
Caution: I am going to attempt to explain the following without losing any readers who made it this far.
Hopefully you have noticed in the article above that I keep bolding the phrase “next year only.”
Yes, the phase in of the new assessments is five years. However, city officials have pointed out the mill rate nor budgets have not been set for year two, three, four and five of the phase-in. The mill rate could very well change, which would change the calculations.