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DERBY — A public hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday (April 9) on a budget that could raise the mill rate by 11.9 percent.
Colleen Germain-Ezzo, the chairwoman of the Derby Board of Apportionment and Taxation, said her board doesn’t have many options due to past budget mistakes made during former Mayor Rich Dziekan’s administration.
She said Dziekan’s administration’s last budget under-funded employee benefits by about $1.3 million and didn’t budget for a $648,000 increase in trash costs. In addition, that budget over-estimated tax revenue.
Those factors, along with the fact Derby is under the eye of the state’s Municipal Advisory Finance Commission, make a tax increase unavoidable, both Germain-Ezzo and new Mayor Joseph DiMartino said.
“We’re at a place now where we can move forward and advance, or slip further into the hole,” Germain-Ezzo said during a tax board meeting on April 2.
The tax board adopted a preliminary budget on April 2 that totals $53,186,349.
The current Derby mill rate is 38.6.
The proposed budget adds 4.6 mills to the Derby mill rate, bringing it to 43.2.
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.
School board chairman Jim Gildea said the school district plans to use $235,000 from a‘non-lapsing fund’ established in 2019. That’s essentially a reserve fund of school money previously allocated by the city but not used by the schools.
Click this link to read all Derby budget stories written by The Valley Indy since January.
The April 9 public hearing is scheduled to be held on the second floor of Derby City Hall at 1 Elizabeth St. Keep in mind that Elizabeth Street in front of Derby City Hall is now one way heading up and away from Main Street.
The meeting will also be accessible online through the Zoom platform. Click here for details.
