Based on a general expectation that there will be a windfall of around $2.5 million through the new Grand List, the Board of Finance spent some time on Thursday, Feb. 19, contemplating where that money should go.
While in the end it was decided to wait and get a greater sense of what the public would like to see done with that money, several unknowns — and timeline realities — will ultimately guide the choices and paint the fact of exactly how much money is there for consideration.
“My biggest concern right now is the quality of the information that we’re getting,” BOF Vice Chair Rudy Escalante said. “We don’t know what we spent in Fiscal ’25 even. We don’t know what we’re spending in ’26, and we have a ton of questions about ’27.
“So before we come to a number we need to have better information,” he said. “That to me is the bigger problem … Let’s go through the information and that’s the part that I think has really been lacking up until now.”
The new net assessment for Wilton’s 2025 Grand List shows a 1.81% increase totaling $104,618,672. The change, according to BOF Chair Tim Birch, at least at this time, will result in around $2.5 million in additional revenue for the town.
“The Grand List came in materially higher than expected,” Birch told the BOF.
“The issue there is about allocation of the revenue and what we have talked about at this board … is whether or not we will adopt a proposal that we use a percentage of that additional revenue and put it in a capital fund to assist in the funding of capital infrastructure repairs rather than use it for operating expenses. It really does come down to whether or not people feel allocating it towards operating expenses — or a greater percentage towards operating expenses — is the proper allocation,” he said.
What to Do with the Increased Revenue
Regardless of the final amount, Birch and others outlined several options for use of the additional revenue.
“One is to use them to augment budgets for next year in terms of operating budgets,” Birch said. “One is to use a portion of those funds for operating capital expenditures … we can have it set in a fund to use for those purposes. A third would be to use a portion of those funds to go in the Non-Recurring Capital Fund that is being voted on in the Town Meeting.”
“The sense that we had is that, given the significant level of infrastructure repairs that are needed — I know that the assessment was around $150 million,” Birch said, but noted it would probably be much more than that over time.
BOE member Prasad Iyer said there was also the option of providing a lower tax increase or rebate to residents.
“If you keep the 3.6% [suggested increase] you can cut taxes,” he said. “That’s the other option, too, so I think that’s the discussion we should have.”
Escalante said that, while there is additional revenue expected over the next few years from new construction projects in town, there is limited capacity for bonding over the next 10 or 15 years, and likely there won’t be enough to meet that need.
“So we have a shortfall to meet the needs that are specified in those requirements documents for the town and Board of Ed buildings, and above and beyond that, those documents do not include anything that may break or wear out in the next 10 or 15 years,” Escalante said.
“The choice, kind of — and there’s always a tension in this — is do we spend on infrastructure or do we hire more administrators, and that’s really the kind of choice that we’re considering here,” he said, noting that he felt the infrastructure need was priority.
“We’ve underinvested in our infrastructure and we need to get that back,” he said.
Iyer suggested that they should wait for public feedback over the next few weeks.
“Let’s get some people to weigh in,” he said. “That way we can come to the conclusion that this is the best way to use it … That way we can get less emotional … You put it out there and see what’s right.”
Birch noted that given timelines for budget approvals, there may be an issue with allotting the expected revenue to operating budgets as it may not potentially materialize.
He qualified that the projected amount of $2.5 million was based on the assumption that the appeals process is comparable from past years and that no large change might impact that figure.
“Obviously if the appeals level is significantly higher than historical and we have to go through the entire appeals process before we collect the tax revenue, that process takes a fair amount of time and you will likely not see those tax revenues in time to impact any of these budgets,” Birch said.
Escalante pointed out that assessment changes at the Belden Hill Rd. property that formerly housed the School Sisters of Notre Dame, where a new development is in the application stage with Planning and Zoning, accounted for a large portion of the change.
“A significant percentage of this newfound money is from the Sisters and I believe they will have an opinion as to whether they’re going to pay … and if we put it in the budget and then we have to take it out, that creates a big problem,” he said.
BOF member Kari Roberts expressed support, based on Birch’s suggestion of perhaps three-quarters of the amount being set aside for future infrastructure, of setting money aside.
“I think my opinion is that some amount should be going into this Non-Recurring Capital Fund without a doubt,” she said.