A screen shot from Monday’s Derby tax board meeting.
DERBY — The public didn’t have much to say during a hearing Monday on the city’s $47.4 million budget.
Only two members of the public spoke at the hearing in front of the Derby Board of Apportionment and Taxation (tax board).
Resident Karen Kemmesies urged the board to make sure there’s enough money allocated to Derby’s pension system.
Aniello Malerba III, the chairman of the Derby Democratic Town Committee, warned the board that some of the money Derby is counting on as revenue is coming from the state — and some of the funds are new and haven’t been approved by the state just yet. Malerba said Derby’s budget includes about $2 million in such new state funding. Malerba pointed out the dollar amount represents about three mills in the Derby budget.
Malerba was echoing concerns raised at a previous tax board meeting by Marc Garofalo, the former mayor now serving as town/city clerk.
Rose Pertoso, a member of the tax board, asked a question about staffing in the tax collector’s office. Her question was not immediately answered because the hearing was for members of the public to share thoughts on the proposed budget. It was not answered during a meeting after the public hearing, either.
The budget is slated to be approved by the tax board at a meeting scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Tuesday (May 18).
Mill Rate Decrease
The current mill rate in Derby is 43.869. The budget lowers the mill rate by 5.269 mills, to 38.6.
This budget cycle includes new property assessment data from a state-mandated revaluation.
To determine your tax bill under the new budget:
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1. Find your old tax bill and look at how much you paid in property taxes. Write it down and put it to the side.
2. Find your new (or latest) assessment, which is available online here.
3. Multiply your new (or latest) assessment by 38.6, then divide that answer by 1,000. That’s your new property tax bill.
4. Compare your answer from step 1 to your answer in step 3.
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The budget essentially flat funds Derby Public Schools, allocating one extra dollar to the school district’s current $19,076,606 budget.
The Derby Board of Education had requested an increase from the tax board of 3.3 percent, or $629,000. The bulk of that was salary increases for certified and non-certified staffers, which was $492,119 of the $629,000 increase.
However, Derby Public Schools Superintendent Matthew Conway said last week that the school district is expecting $299,000 from the state that can go toward the school board’s requested $629,000 increase. So last week the tax board also voted to put $150,000 in the city’s ‘special working balance’ that can be used toward education should the need arise.
Tax board members also said the school district has access to about $300,000 in a reserve fund.
