Politics & Government

Board of Finance Weighs Tax Increase in 4 to 4.5% Range

Members will meet on Thursday to conduct a preliminary vote on the 2011-2012 budget.

As the Board of Finance prepares for a preliminary vote Thursday on the 2011-2012 town and school budgets, the size of Darien's impending property tax increase has come into focus: about 4 or 4.5 percent.

That's according to figures tallied at the end of Tuesday's board meeting, during which members pruned another $200,000 from the draft budget by deferring several school capital projects.

The numbers, though preliminary, peg Darien's required taxes at $105,495,125. Assuming a collection rate of 98.75 percent, that would yield a mill rate of 12.21, or 4 percent higher than the current level of 11.74.

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Put another way: property owners would owe $12.21 per $1000 of assessed value.

The figures are based on a total assessed value of taxable properties in Darien — known as the grand list — of $8,746,869,799.

Find out what's happening in Darienwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"I think we've prepared the town that we may have to have a little higher tax increase this year than we otherwise would be comfortable with," chairman Liz Mao said Tuesday.

"We still are facing, given a lot of assumptions we've done, something in the order of roughly 4 to 4.5," Mao added. "This is certainly better than the 7 or 8 percent we began with, but it's still above where we'd like to be."

After discussing the issue at its last two meetings, board members tentatively settled on an assumed collection rate of 98.75 percent, higher than in recent memory. But that could still change.

Relying on a more generous collection rate allows the town to lower property taxes but reduces its buffer against unexpected drops.

"We're leaving ourselves less padding here," said vice chair Martha Banks.

Darien has traditionally assumed a more conservative rate — for example, 98.5 percent this year and 98.3 percent in 2009 — but Mao noted that the empirical collection percentage hasn't dropped below 99 in at least a decade. 

After Mao initially suggested using 99 percent, she proposed a compromise on Tuesday of 98.75. That change, if finalized, would bump the projected tax increase from about 3.77 percent to 4 percent.

"If you set it at 99, and you find out that was a mistake, you are setting yourself up for a built-in increase in the next year," Finance Director Kate Buch warned.

The size of the respective budgets may yet change, too. The current version of the school operating budget stands $76,206,079, but board member Murry Stegelmann asked Tuesday if the board would consider cutting another $200,000 from that number.

Banks said that a reduction of that size would require major changes to school operations.

"It's not going to work if the board of ed just trims a little bit here ... It's only going to work if you make hard structural cuts," Banks said.

Earlier in the evening, members discussed the 's proposed capital budget, okaying some key items in but deferring several others.

Included in the final cut were the re-piping of the boiler room, the replacement of a 16-year-old dump truck, and the renovation of a portable classroom at Ox Ridge.

But the board held off on a $200,000 proposal to install energy management controls at , the addition of external PA systems to the town's elementary schools, and the planting of trees at to shield neighboring residents from the portable lights used at the school's stadium.

Board of Education chairman Kim Westcott, who attended the meeting with fellow board members and school administrators, also filled in finance members on the deficit that Darien Public Schools are running for the 2010-11 fiscal year.

Projected last month , Westcott said the estimated shortfall was now around $408,000. The Board of Education is set to vote on a proposed appropriation before its regular meeting on Tuesday, at which point the measure will go to the Board of Finance and ultimately the Representative Town Meeting.

The Board of Finance will meet Thursday at 7:30 p.m. (room 206) to conduct a preliminary vote on the FY 2012 budget.


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