The following is a submission from the Board of Finance.
Hello Wilton Residents!
In today’s newsletter, we will discuss the budget process and the Board of Finance’s (BOF) upcoming decision on budget guidance.
Annual Budget and Tax-Setting Guide
Over the past few weeks, residents have reached out to understand how the budgets are calculated, how the mill rate works, and what all the different terms mean. You can find an explanation on the BOF website.
FY2026 Budget Discussions
A major topic in front of the BOF is providing budget guidance to the Board of Selectmen (BOS) and Board of Education (BOE) for their respective budget submissions. To provide a framework for this discussion, the BOF asked both the BOS and BOE for preliminary fiscal year 2026 budget projections.
- The BOS projected a [preliminary] $2.1 million or 6.0% increase
- The BOE projected a [preliminary] $5.3 million or 5.9% increase
- As a general note, the BOE budget is typically 66% of the Town’s total expense budget and the BOS is typically 25% of the Town’s total expense budget. Debt service, reserve funding, and tax relief initiatives make up the remainder.
Considering these budget increase projections with estimates for the FY2026 debt service, grand list growth, and non-tax revenue growth, it is estimated that the FY2026 mill rate increase (i.e., tax increase) would be 5.3%. See the calculation of the estimate and a discussion of the components on the BOF website.
To put this increase in perspective, [this chart shows] approximately how much more money taxpayers at various current tax levels would have to pay assuming different levels of mill rate (tax) increase.
As part of its deliberations, the BOF is considering the following:
- Contractual level of union wage increases for both BOE employees (~4.0%) and BOS employees (FY26 increase is pending contract negotiations)
- Inflation (currently 2.4%)
- Forecasted changes to school enrollment (an increase of 13 children from the current school year) and per-pupil-expenditure trends
- Student/teacher ratio across grade levels and disciplines
- BOS proposed staff increases
- New Grand List growth from development
- Consideration for what may or may not be acceptable to the residents of the town based on previous town surveys, resident emails/comments, annual town meeting votes, and municipal elections
Next BOF Meeting on Budget Guidance
The BOF will make a final determination on budget guidance at our next meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 12. The agenda and Zoom link will be available on the town website.
As a note, budget and mill rate guidance is just that — guidance. If the BOF reaches a consensus on guidance, that guidance and the projections we base them on are not contractual and the BOE and BOS are not obligated to follow this BOF feedback.
We encourage you to reach out with any questions or comments, as your feedback is invaluable as we work together to shape the budget. You can reach out to the Board of Finance by email.
Matt Raimondi
Chair, Wilton Board of Finance