Board of Finance Approves 2.94 Percent Mill Rate Proposal, Lessens Cuts

With much of the heavy discussion and number crunching done Tuesday night, the Wilton Board of Finance was able to finalize a new mill rate proposal of 2.94 percent quickly and unanimously on Wednesday.

The board initially believed that bringing the mill rate down to what they deemed an acceptable 3.1 percent would mean $1.7 million in pro-rated cuts to the Board of Selectman and Education's budgets. But they received some encouraging news when consulting their models the next morning.

"Where we left off last night was where we wanted to be on the ending fund balance, on the collection rate, and on town revenues," said Chairman Warren Serenbetz at the start of Wednesday night's session. "When we ran the numbers this morning...[they] yielded a mill rate of 2.88 percent."

Instead of keeping that slightly lower rate and asking the Boards of Education and Selectmen to cut $1.2 million and $500,000 from their budgets, respectively, the Board of Finance opted to move back toward a three percent mill rate and apply the extra $50,000 to lessen the necessary cuts.

Board of Finance member Jim Meinhold believed this to be a wise decision, considering that $50,000 spread out over the entire tax base does not amount to a noticeable increase, while $50,000 less in cuts in the school and town budgets could mean potentially saving jobs.

"Fifty-thousand dollars could be just enough to prevent one teacher from being laid off, one policeman from being laid off, one parks and rec person from being laid off," he said, with board member Lynne Vanderslice echoing his sentiments.

Not all board members were entirely comfortable with the decision. Al Alper, for instance, said he would have preferred a much lower mill rate but also understood that "under two percent would be so draconian that it would hurt services to our citizens."

"We don't live in a vacuum, we impose a tax burden on our citizens," Alper said. "Our state is in billions of dollars of expected deficit...our federal government is talking about a value added tax...$50,000 is a big deal. It is the buffer between what we can control and what is out of control in Hartford and Washington...we need to take care of that."

Ultimately, though, the board unanimously agreed on the 2.94 percent mill rate proposal and lessened the necessary cuts by $50,000.

"What we did was take $50,000 and put it back into the Board of Selectmen and Board of Education budgets on a pro-rated basis (29 to 71 percent)," Serenbetz said after a short break to finalize the figures. "The net result is a mill rate increase of 2.94 percent and that is where we are."

The board members then took turns reading through each individual budget total proposal, all of which were approved unanimously. They included assumptions of a 99.2 percent tax collection rate, an $8.4 million appropriation for debt service, and a general fund balance of $10.9 million, all of which were discussed at length and agreed upon previously on Tuesday evening.

The numbers are as follows (rounded to the thousands):

1. Fiscal 2011 Revenue Estimate: $5,512,000
2. Debt Service Appropriation: $8,400,000
3. Board of Education Operating Budget: $70,291,000
4. Board of Selectmen Operating Budget: $27,523,000
5. Board of Selectmen Capital Appropriation: $1,332,000
6. Board of Selectmen and Board of Education Charters: $267,000 and $807,000
7. Elderly Tax Relief Estimate: $850,000
8. Ending General Fund Balance: $10,937,000, 10.6 percent in budgeted revenue ($13 million will be used to finance the fiscal year 2011 budget)
9. Total Operating Requirements (before non-tax revenues and general funds are applied, and before elderly tax relief is deducted): $108,695,022
10. Estimated Tax Collection Rate from $5,058,000,000 grand list: 99.2 percent
11. Proposed Mill Rate: $20.16 per mill on net taxable grand list (equal to a 2.94 percent mill rate increase), with half payable in July and half payable in January of the following year
12. $250,000 bonding for Miller/Driscoll roof repair, $150,000 for Middlebrook roof repair, $550,000 for Middlebrook window replacement