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West Hartford's Town Budget
Original Budget as approved at 4/22/08 Town Council meeting
The Town Council voted on April 22nd to adopt the budget. The Town Council reduced the property taxes required by 2 million dollars from the budget originally proposed by the Town Manager. The adopted budget calls for spending of 215,912,738, an increase of 7% compared to 2007-08. The property taxes required are 180,596,777, an increase of 7% compared to 2007-08. The mill rate was reduced from the 38.11 originally proposed to 37.64.
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6/25/08 Cuts to the Budget
Due to the failure of the budget in the June referendum, 2.4 million was cut from the originally proposed budget. The increase from last year’s expenditures went from 7% to 5.5%. The mill rate was reduced from 37.64 to 37.09. The new budget is no longer a maintenance budget.
The cuts that were made (not all-inclusive):
- Cutting 20 positions from the Town, none from police or fire.
- Eliminating Vacuum leaf collection, residents must bag their leaves.
- Anticipating savings from the Fire department’s recommendation to close a fire station on Prospect Ave, pending an impact analysis on public safety.
- $20,000 of public works beautification projects were cut.
- Increasing fees for outdoor pools, senior centers, disposal of appliances, false alarms and others.
- Reducing private school transportation
- Reducing library hours
- Reducing outdoor pool hours
- Closing assessor and tax offices on Fridays
- Reducing fire and police training
For more cuts, see the complete list in the Mayor’s 6/24/08 presentation.
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Impact for property owners
As a result of the phase in of the revaluation of homes, the impact of the 2008-09 town budget will affect everyone's property tax differently. The town has created an easy way for you to find out what the budget means to you personally. The town's Web site has a comparison of what your tax bill was for 2007-08 compared to what it would be with the latest town budget. Please note that since the mill rate has gone down, your property tax for your motor vehicles will go down, as long as you have the same cars that you had last year. This tax calculator does not include the change in your motor vehicle tax.
Click here to see your projected tax bill with the new 37.09 mill rate.
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What is driving the increased costs in the Town budget?
- Increased Personnel Costs Required by Collective Bargaining Agreements of $1,140,093, an increase of 3.6%.
- Employee Health Care Costs and Post Employment Benefit Contributions increasing $1,796,724 or 12.7% compared to last year.
- Rising Energy and Utility Costs of $501,175, or 5.7% over last year.
- e.g., fuel oil, electricity, natural gas, gasoline, water, MDC sewer charges
- Increased Costs for Supplies and Materials of $226,076 or 6.0% compared to last year.
- e.g., office equipment, snow melt material, bituminous material for pothole patching, traffic calming supplies, etc.
- Economic Softening Reducing Interest Income (assumed decrease of $250,000 or 9.3%) and Building Permits (assumed decrease of $100,000 or 6.3% less than last year's budget).
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What is driving the increase in the Capital Financing?
Debt service on the town's obligations for long-term debt is increasing by $607,442 or 4.1%. In addition, the town is planning to spend $885,000 in Capital Non-Recurring Expenditures (CNRE) this year. This is the typical amount spent annually. However, it is a significant increase over last year, when $0 CNRE were budgeted. See the Capital Improvement Program Hot topics section for more information on what major projects are proposed to be funded.
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What will be the effect on my taxes if 1 million dollars were cut from the budget?
If 1 million dollars were cut from the budget, taxes would be reduced by 0.6%. This would amount to approximately 40 dollars in savings to the average homeowner.
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