DERBY — The tax board will consider adopting a $48.5 million preliminary budget Thursday that carries a tax increase of 2.28 mills.
Thursday’s meeting will be held on Zoom starting at 6 p.m. Visit the Derby website for info on how to attend.
A public hearing on the budget has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, June 22. The board could adopt a final budget at a meeting immediately following the public hearing.
Tax board members have been meeting twice a week since May going over the budget.
“It is what it is,” said tax board member Ray Bowers. “We’ve been through this budget several times. We scrubbed it pretty well.”
Tax board chair Judy Szewczyk agreed with Bowers. Members stopped short of reducing the budget to the point where layoffs would be triggered.
“I think it is frankly time for the City of Derby to start doing some analysis and ratios,” Szewczyk said.
She noted that other towns seem to be able to keep the tax rate flat, though it doesn’t look like they are awash with revenue from new businesses.
Derby Public Schools, who haven’t received an increase in funding from the Derby tax board in two years, are scheduled to receive an increase of $680,710 in the proposed budget.
In addition, $380,000 that the schools did not use during the current school year will be given back to the city. That money will be earmarked next year as going to special education costs and nothing else.
The proposed budget is about $3.5 million larger than the $44.5 million budget approved last June.
Derby City Treasurer Finance Director Keith McLiverty broke the $3.5 million as follows:
A little more than $1 million of the $3.5 million is “pass through” money. That is, money that comes into the city but immediately goes out. The pass through items include $589,390 for WPCA bonds and $455,358 in alliance money (money from the state to be used for Derby Public Schools).
Then there are about $1.16 million in obligations Derby has to pay.
Those items include general wage increases of about $283,000; putting $298,000 into fund balance, as outlined in a city financial plan; $80,000 for new fire department equipment; and $600,000 in lease payments for a Johnson Controls solar panel project that is behind schedule (the city is expecting to get rebates from United Illuminating and Eversource in the next few weeks to offset this cost, according to the mayor’s office).
The insurance line item in the budget is increasing by about $55,000, benefits are going up by about $25,000, and payroll taxes are up about $44,000.
The city is also considering putting aside $75,000 for economic development. That money is needed so the city can get economic development grants. To get those grants, cities often have to put up matching money. The $75,000 will be used for that.
The budget forecasts a tax collection rate of 99 percent.
During the public comment portion of an online meeting Tuesday, Derby City Treasurer Walt Mayhew said that forecast could be too high because of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Later in Tuesday’s meeting, tax board chair Szewczyk said she was comfortable leaving the collection rate at 99 percent. Derby tends to pay taxes no matter what, she said.
“Derby doesn’t falter,” Szewczyk said.
Just last week the tax board had been considering a budget that carried a 3.25 mill rate increase.
To get the increase down about a mill, Finance Director McLiverty spent about a week going over the budget and making various adjustments, ranging from tweaking miscellaneous revenue to adjusting the line item for employee benefits.
The tax board could decide to make further tweaks Thursday. Its members could also make changes after Monday’s public hearing.
