Wilton officials are moving full steam ahead working on the budget for FY 2025. Last week, the Board of Finance met with the Board of Education to review the budget presented by Wilton Public School Superintendent Kevin Smith; the BOE is set to deliberate and vote on adopting the budget as its own on Thursday, Feb. 29.
Over at the Board of Selectmen, members also met this past week with town department heads — most recently at a special meeting last night — to review numbers as First Selectman Toni Boucher prepares to present her first budget as the town’s chief executive.
Tonight (Tuesday, Feb. 13), the Board of Finance will meet to hold its own preliminary conversations about how the budget is shaping up, including a look at forecasting the mill rate.
In advance of that meeting, officials posted the meeting agenda to the town website, as well as a worksheet showing their predicted mill rate calculation — a spreadsheet into which the town’s financiers plug in the elements that make up the budget
At first glance, that worksheet revealed a stunning projected mill rate increase of 6.1% over last year’s approved FY 2024 budget. Considering the average mill rate increase over the last four years was .68%, the current year’s projected increase is markedly higher.
However, it’s still early in the process, so the numbers being factored into the mill rate calculation and the final increase are very likely to change. But the BOF’s choice to release that calculation now is a noticeable one.
In the past, the worksheet typically hasn’t been prepared until officials are further along in the process, usually in mid-March or even later, at the public hearings held by the BOF once budgets have been formally adopted and presented by the Board of Education (school budget) and the Board of Selectmen (town budget).
But this year, the BOF has released its first look at mill rate calculations a full month earlier — and when some of the factors to fully consider are still unknown. The BOS and BOE have not officially approved any budget, so the preliminary operating budgets being discussed (school with a 5.56% increase, and town with a 7.12% increase) are still just that — preliminary.
Similarly, the Grand List total hasn’t been finalized or presented to town boards, the amount necessary to keep in excess fund balance isn’t set, and how the revaluation will impact the calculations is still TBD.
In addition, a major factor that is still unknown is how officials will handle the building maintenance fund and the approximately $182 million in town-owned building maintenance costs that the town will face over the next 10-15 years.
GOOD Morning Wilton reached out to first-term BOF Chair Matt Raimondi to ask him about the decision to release the figures now.
GMW: It’s a full month earlier than last year that the BOF put together and released the mill rate calculation. You don’t have adopted budget proposals yet from either the BOF or the BOE, so those are still preliminary. There is nothing concrete about the school/town building maintenance fund. There is nothing reliable on grand list totals if calculated without revaluations. Why issue this so early with so many unknowns?
Matt Raimondi: There are a few parts to this question. First, in addition to my duties to put forth a budget and mill rate proposal to the town, I view one of my primary goals as Chairman is to be proactive, communicative, and transparent with other members of the BOF, residents, and other boards. The survey, my newsletters, and my meetings with different groups around town are in service to this goal.
While the budgets have not been adopted, we know the preliminary numbers as put forward by the town and school administration, and can therefore calculate the mill rate increase that would be required to fund those budgets. As the public can still comment on these budgets prior to their finalization by BOS/BOE, it is an opportune time to provide an update and give transparency to residents about where the budgets are landing and what it means for their taxes (understanding that the budgets may change when voted on [by] the BOE/BOS).
As it relates to the Grand List, those figures don’t impact budgets or the ultimate amount of revenue (i.e., property taxes) that the town needs to collect. While the Revaluation could certainly lead to a shift towards residents (as based on the preliminary Residential and Commercial grand list figures that the Assessor told GMW in a recent article), we don’t have that information to report on that yet. My expectation is that with the new Grand List, the mill rate will likely drop — but since spending will increase based on these budgets, the town will need to collect greater revenue and therefore residential tax dollars in aggregate will increase. The mill rate pre-revaluation is a proxy for that.
GMW: Critics may say you’re stoking a fire with information replete with unknown factors, stirring the pot early to get a public response… Why issue this so early?
Raimondi: I haven’t heard this at all. In fact, I’ve heard the opposite, which is that people are paying more attention now than ever before and they want to know which way their taxes are heading. You’ve probably seen many of these questions on social media and I’ve certainly heard it directly from many people. Everything being presented here is already public information: the preliminary BOE budget was presented on Jan. 11, and the BOS budget and debt service were released Feb. 8. What’s presented here is the calculation to tabulate what that information means insofar as a tax increase, which is an analysis that any resident could do with the information that has been publicly provided by those boards. As I stated, my goal as Chair of the BOF is to engage with the public and other boards in as proactive and transparent a manner as possible. Given that all of the information is public, my thought is that to not present on the mill rate implications would be in contrast to that goal.
GMW: In a way, this could be prejudicial before you send out your own survey… and may impact (potentially skewing) results. Comment?
Raimondi: I’m not sure how it could be prejudicial. The survey directly asks people about the mill rate; you can see the original draft on the survey here and the revised survey based on public comment here. If the budgets ultimately change prior to fielding the survey in early March, then the mill rate would change as well, and that new figure would be reflected in the survey. The whole concept behind the survey is to provide an outlet for residents to efficiently inform the BOF on their view of the BOS, BOE and mill rate, which are three items that residents vote on during the town meeting. As a general matter, this survey is but one method that the BOF uses to understand resident sentiments on tax rates. Other methods are the public hearings, public comment at our meetings, our individual conversations with residents, and our analysis of the budgetary needs of the BOS and BOE. As a matter of sample size, during last year’s budget season, 797 residents responded to the survey, 40 sent emails, 32 spoke at the BOE budget public hearing, eight spoke at the BOS Budget public hearing, and none spoke about the budget during public comment at our regularly scheduled meetings.
GMW: You’ve entered a preliminary 7.1% increase from the First Selectman’s budget. That’s much higher than your 4% [guidance] — even higher than the 5.6% from Supterintendent [Kevin] Smith. Do you have a reaction to that?
Raimondi: No comment on their specific budgets.
GMW: It looks like, based on these figures, the 25% Moody’s requires for the excess fund balance is $35,613,848.75. Last year’s March preliminary calculations included the starting balance. This year’s current (Feb.) preliminary calculations [worksheet] does [not] have that section. What is the current starting balance? And will Wilton hit the 25% threshold this year or is there any leeway based on Moody’s assessment last year?
Raimondi: I have requested this information from the town but have not yet received it which is why I didn’t include it. The Board of Finance is committed to meeting Moody’s guidance to maintain its AAA rating, and we have communicated to them that we will continue to hold back the excess fund balance until we do so (likely in the next 1-2 years).
GMW: Anything else you want to add?
Raimondi: Thank you for reporting on this!
This seems like a good sign that the BOE’s new PR strategy is working. But the strategy he telegraphs is basically the same one the BOF used last year – push a survey that asks about abstract mill rate numbers in order to steer people towards the response they want (because everyone wants lower taxes), then insist the survey counts more than any other form of feedback because more people were willing to fill out an online form than to compose an email and/or show up to a meeting.
Hopefully, though, by making sure that people are thinking about the consequences of budget cuts long before the survey comes out, enough people can be turned out to vote for higher mill rates – knowing what they’re actually voting for – that the survey results won’t produce the outcome Raimondi et al are looking for and they’ll have to come up with some other excuse for cutting the budget.