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DERBY – A budget that carries a 11.9 percent increase in the mill rate could be approved at a meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 16 in Derby City Hall.
The meeting will be held in-person on the second floor of the building at 1 Elizabeth St. The meeting will also be carried on Zoom.
Click here to read the agenda.
Click here to read the budget.
The $53.1 million budget adds 4.6 mills to the Derby mill rate, bringing it to 43.2 mills from the current 38.6.
A single-family house on Hawthorne Avenue assessed at $112,000 would pay an additional $515 in property taxes next year if the budget is adopted as is.
A house on Sentinel Hill Road assessed at $220,150 would pay $1,000 more in taxes next year.
Tax bills are calculated by multiplying the assessed value (click this link to look up your address) by the mill rate and then dividing by 1,000. Use the assessed value (not appraised value) when calculating tax bills.
The budget allocates an additional $673,983 for Derby Public Schools, a 3.4 percent spending increase but well below the $1.2 million requested by the Derby Board of Education.
However, school board chairman Jim Gildea said the school district plans to use $235,000 from a‘non-lapsing fund’ established in 2019 to address the difference. That’s essentially a reserve fund of school money previously allocated by the city but not used by the schools.
Mayor Joseph DiMartino said the mill rate increase is needed because the city is in a financial crisis caused by previous budgets that had bad financial forecasts.
The current Derby budget had a deficit of about $2 million because it under-estimated the cost of employee benefits, overestimated the tax collection rate, and didn’t budget for an increase in trash collection.
DiMartino administration officials have said the city budgeting practices were flawed because reserve money was used to plug holes in the budget, instead of raising taxes or cutting spending.
Derby officials are also worried that the state will take over city finances if the city can’t show they are addressing budget problems, some of which date back to at least 2016.
The administration has promised to hire a firm to conduct a forensic audit once this budget is adopted.
In Derby, the board of apportionment and taxation adopts a budget. The elected board held a public hearing on the budget on April 9, but only one member of the public spoke.
However, there have been mixed reviews on local Facebook, with people criticizing the tax hike and others saying there’s no other choice.
Click here to read every story The Valley Indy has published in the budget so far.
