If Thursday night’s Board of Finance public hearing on Seymour’s 2016 – 2017 budget is any indication of public sentiment, town officials have little to worry about.
The hearing lasted less than a half-hour and was attended by about a dozen residents. Only two questions about the budget plan were asked of the finance board and First Selectman Kurt Miller.
The majority of the meeting time at the Seymour High School was taken up by a budget presentation given by Miller.
One resident said officials shouldn’t schedule the public hearing at the same time other events where town residents attend, stating there was an event at the same time at the middle school.
Another resident questioned whether the town considers leasing instead of buying new fire equipment when the time comes to replace again equipment. Miller answered that the town makes those decisions on a “case-by-case’’ basis.
In Seymour, voters have the ultimate say on the budget at referendum.
A date for the vote hasn’t been set yet. Click here for a calendar.
The budget calls for a proposed mill rate increase from 34.59 to 36.00, an increase of 1.41 mills.
But the first selectman said that doesn’t necessarily mean residents’ property taxes will be going up.
Miller told those in the audience that they needed to remember the mill rate is “a multiplier” and just because it is going up it doesn’t mean that taxes are increase.
The mill rate increase, Miller said, is due to the property revaluation. Most taxpayers have experienced a decline in their property valuations, resulting in a need for a somewhat higher mill rate to maintain services in the town, both Miller and finance board Chairman Bill Sawicki said.
They said that with the mill rate increase, the revaluation will result in lower property taxes for most Seymour residents, depending on individual revaluation amounts.
The Board of Education budget would increase by 0.06 percent — from $32,580,447 to $32,599,415 — and the town government would budget increase 1.23 percent — $17,553,185 to $17,808,341 — from current year expenditures.
Click here to read more about the budget on the town’s website.
Miller said the “focus of the 2016 – 17 budget is staying course. We are working to continue to improve municipal services while keeping an eye on our future, striving to keep taxes as low as possible.”
Both Miller and Sawicki said the budget process began by departments being challenged to come in with spending requests to as close to a “zero increase’’ as possible.
The first selectman said keeping taxes low is a particular challenge this year with the state finances being in tough straits.
He noted that while the state just managed to come up with a deficit reduction plan to offset $220 million needed to balance this year’s budget, the state is projecting a $900 million deficit in next year’s budget and “municipal aid is on the table.”
Miller said an indication that the town’s financial house is in good order is that its bond rating has been moved up two levels, from AA- to AA+, by Standard and Poor’s.
“This new rating puts us just one level below towns like Darien and Greenwich,” Miller said. “We have spent a great deal of time working to improve our financial foundation and this is proof we are headed in the right direction.”
