Click the video above to watch the one-hour meeting.
Tax board Chairwoman Judy Szewczyk said the board was determined to leave the mill rate alone.
Yes, it’s an election year, but Szewczyk said the municipal race was not a motivating factor.
Instead, it was the fact taxes increased by 3.6 mills last year.
“It just killed everybody, but there was literally no way around that last year,” Szewczyk said.
So this budget season the board was in agreement from the start.
“The board said no increases this year. Let’s find a way to get there,” Szewczyk said.
“Everybody was on the same page,” tax board member Howard Bradshaw said.
“We’re intelligent people. We don’t need to bicker and fight when it comes to our taxes,” tax board member Phyllis Sochrin said.
The toughest decision for the tax board was how much money to give to Derby Public Schools.
The tax board wanted to keep education funding flat from last year’s budget.
But Superintendent Matthew Conway explained at Tuesday’s meeting state law governing “alliance districts” complicated the matter.
“Alliance” money is extra state aid that is given to Connecticut’s lowest-performing, poorest school districts.
But cities can’t look at alliance district money from the state as a way to lower the local contribution to schools.
If the locals contribute $11 million to education — then the number in the next budget cycle can’t dip below $11 million, even if the school district’s enrollment figures decrease.
And, under the preliminary budget approved by the tax board last week, Derby had been planning to give less local money than last year.
Click here to learn more about the “minimum budget requirement” in state law and how it applies to alliance districts.
Once Conway and Derby City Treasurer Keith McLiverty explained the law to the tax board, they voted to approve $18,389,806 for the school system — a 3.5 percent increase from last year’s budget.
About $10.8 million of the school budget is directly from Derby taxpayers.
Still unknown — the impact of state aid on the Derby budget.
In fact, the state budget uncertainty creates specific problems in Derby.
Derby is home to Griffin Hospital.
There is talk in Hartford of having nonprofit hospitals such as Griffin pay local property taxes, instead of the state contributing an annual “payment in lieu of taxes” to the locals every year.
But nonprofit hospitals such as Griffin said levying property taxes would cause layoffs and increased health care costs for patients.
Right now Derby is planning on about $833,000 in revenue connected to Griffin Hospital next year, a “conservative” estimate, the city treasurer said.
To balance the budget, the tax board trimmed its budget for employee benefits, increased the percentage of property taxes the city expects to collect, and are banking on increases in some state school funding.
