A screen shot from Thursday night's budget presentation on Zoom in Ansonia.
ANSONIA — Mayor David Cassetti submitted a budget to the city’s Board of Apportionment and Taxation on Thursday that he said keeps the mill rate stable.
In an address to the public and to the members of both the tax board and the Ansonia Board of Aldermen, Cassetti noted it was his ninth budget presentation.
“And while a lot has changed over the past nine years, one thing remains constant: my commitment to deliver the most financially responsible budget possible for all our residents,” Cassetti said.
The budget will now be reviewed by the city’s tax board, and then the Board of Aldermen. In Ansonia, the Aldermen vote to adopt a budget.
Cassetti promised to veto any budget with a mill rate increase.
“As city officials, it is our job to eliminate the obstacles — not add to them. For that reason I am once again proposing a budget that does not increase the mill rate,” Cassetti said.
Cassetti’s budget totals $60,656,930. Expenditures are increasing $1,475,957 over the current budget, a 2.49 percent increase.
A Look Back
Cassetti said his proposed budget has “$1 million less in spending than the budget passed immediately before I took office by the Della Volpe administration.“
However, the last Della Volpe administration adopted in May 2013 totaled roughly $61 million, according to this Valley Indy article and this New Haven Register article. Cassetti’s bottom line is smaller than the budget adopted nine years ago by roughly $361,000. That May 2013 budget was adopted by the city six months prior to Cassetti winning the mayor’s office in November 2013.
The May 2013 budget was $2 million more than the budget adopted in May 2012, a particularly tough budget year.
The May 2012 budget totaled $58,680,788 and carried a 5 percent mill rate increase, which set the mill rate at 27.65. It raised taxes on a home assessed at $230,000 by $322, and the school district superintendent said at the time 24 staff positions would be cut.
The mill rate in Cassetti’s new budget of 37.8 is lower than the May 2013 mill rate of 39.34, which Cassetti mentioned.
“Talk about defying gravity. In a world where everything is more expensive, this administration is doing its best to spend less,” Cassetti said.
A Quick Glance
The mayor’s budget gives an additional $379,083 to the city’s school district, bringing the district’s total budget to $33,926,212. That fully funds the board of education’s budget request, according to the budget document made public at the start of Thursday’s meeting.
The mayor’s budget gives the Ansonia Police Department an additional $147,626, bringing the department’s bottom line to $5,562,838.
Not surprisingly, Cassetti’s budget proposes to spend more on utilities such as electricity. The mayor’s budget proposes spending $3,205,000 on utilities, a $542,300 increase over the current budget.
In a letter included in the budget (which is embedded at the bottom of this post), Ansonia Chief Financial Officer Kurt Miller points out waste collection costs are increasing by 20.77 percent.
Miller’s letter points out that the proposed budget is still smaller than the city’s 2014 budget, an accomplishment given the economic challenges of COVID-19 and soaring inflation. The CFO’s letter points to strong fund balances, a fiscal year 2021 audit that shows a surplus and no major financial issues, and a tax collection rate slightly higher than previous years.
Miller’s letter notes that many funding requests from the various city departments contained either small increases or no increase at all.
The city’s finance department provided The Valley Indy with the following budget schedule:
Thursday, April 14, 2022 (7:00pm) – Board of Apportionment and Taxation and the Board of Aldermen Finance Subcommittee will hold a special budget workshop in the Aldermen Chambers at City Hall
Tuesday, April 19, 2022 (7:00pm) – Board of Apportionment and Taxation will hold a Public Hearing on the proposed FY 2023 budget in the Aldermen Chambers at City Hall
Thursday, April 21, 2022 (7:00pm) – Board of Apportionment and Taxation and the Board of Aldermen Finance Subcommittee will hold a special budget workshop in the Aldermen Chambers at City Hall. Also at this meeting, the Board of Apportionment and Taxation will vote to forward the proposed FY 2023 budget on to the full Board of Aldermen
Tuesday, April 26, 2022 (7:00pm) — Board of Aldermen will hold a special budget workshop in the Aldermen Chambers at City Hall
Thursday, May 5, 2022 (7:00pm) — Board of Aldermen will hold a Public Hearing on the proposed FY 2023 budget in the Aldermen Chambers at City Hall
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FY 23 Ansonia Mayor's Presentation by The Valley Indy on Scribd
