DERBY – Members of the Derby Board of Apportionment and Taxation, after spending a week digesting Mayor Joseph DiMartino’s proposed budget, say they can’t see how they’ll pass a budget without a tax increase.
At the March 26 meeting of the tax board, members wrestled with the fact they’re looking at a budget that would add 4.6 mills to the mill rate.
Mayor DiMartino unveiled his budget on March 19. Under DiMartino’s budget, the tax rate would go from 38.6 mills to 43.2 mills.
If the budget was approved today, the owner of a single-family house on Hawthorne Avenue assessed at $112,000 would pay an additional $515 in property taxes next year.
The owner of a two-family house on Sentinel Hill Road assessed at $220,150 would pay $1,000 more in taxes next year.
The tax board has until the end of April to adopt a budget. Prior to that, a public hearing will be held.
Why This Is Happening
Members of the DiMartino administration said the tax increase is unavoidable because past Derby budgets – specifically under former Mayor Rich Dziekan, he said – were built on bad financial forecasts, causing the city to drain into its fund balance, or reserve fund.
In addition, officials said the city has not had a tax increase in three budget cycles. The city should have been adding a mill to the mill rate each year to keep up with spending, Derby interim finance director Brian Hall said.
The current budget, which expires July 1, has a deficit of about $2 million. About $1 million of that deficit is due to under-estimating how much the city would spend on employee benefits. Click here for a previous story and click here to read how the city closed the deficit.
Further complicating the budget crisis is the fact the city is required to meet with the state’s Municipal Finance Advisory Commission for budget mistakes dating back to 2016 and repeatedly filing late financial audits late to the state.
In August, members of MFAC questioned the reliability of the financial data coming from former Mayor Rich Dziekan’s administration. At the time, the city had been without a financial director for a year.
Officials in the DiMartino administration believe that if they don’t pass a responsible budget, another state entity, the Municipal Accountability Review Board, will take over Derby finances.
Public Not Happy
Tax board members said they’ve been receiving phone calls from friends and neighbors angry that their property taxes might go up.
Derby’s current mill rate of 38.6 already puts it in the top 20 highest mill rates in Connecticut.
Several tax board members said they understand the pain – they live here, too.
Derby tax board chairwoman Colleen Germain-Ezzo repeatedly put the blame regarding current budgeting woes on former Mayor Dziekan’s administration, who himself had blamed previous budgeting mistakes on former Mayor Anita Dugatto’s administration.Germain-Ezzo said a way to look at the new bill is to think of monthly payments spread over 12 months.
“I know that if at the end of the day, me as a Derby resident, could pay one thousand more in taxes and get out of state oversight and fund departments, it could be worth it,” she said.
Tax board members Tina Parelli-Silkoff and Jose Rivera said the feedback from friends and neighbors has not been good. Both said they’ve received phone calls, and they’ve read negative reactions on Facebook.
Parelli-Silkoff said the board is in a tough spot.
“I totally get it,” she said. “To move forward we have to raise taxes. But I’m also on the other side: are we driving families out of the city? For some, $60 or $70 more a month, no big deal. For others, it’s going to be hard on some parents.”
Finances
Hall told the board he will keep tweaking the budget to find ways to save. But he noted one mill is $766,000. He doesn’t envision finding areas to trim that would equal that dollar amount.
He also noted that the budget requested isn’t filled with fat. Most departments are getting small increases, mostly dictated by raises spelled out in labor contracts.
The tax board is scheduled to meet again 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 9. Click here for the Derby municipal calendar.
