Hiring another staff person in her department would net the town more money in taxes, as well as insure greater accuracy in assessments.
So said Hollie Rapp, Wilton’s manager of assessing and tax collection, reviewing Oct. 1, 2025, Grand List numbers with the Board of Selectmen at its Monday, Mar. 16, meeting.
She also noted that there was the potential for “a significant amount” of additional tax revenue coming to the town over the next few years based on new commercial projects that are in process, as well as potential increases in residential worth.
“If you had an additional person, would you be able to bring in more taxes?” First Selectman Toni Boucher asked Rapp.
“Oh, definitely,” Rapp said.
“We would not be missing any real estate coming on, which as I said is very beneficial because it’s tax revenue nobody was counting on,” she said. “It would come in during the budget cycle that you already finalized, so it would just be additional revenue.”
Rapp described the time-consuming process of researching the personal property of businesses, which amounted to a significant part of the Grand List growth — in particular an increase of $21.7 million for the personal property of ASML. She said that in order to make an accurate assessment, a staff member needs to go out into the field to see what’s really there.
“A lot of things take time and need you to be able to go and to look,” Rapp said. “A lot of what we do is very detail-oriented, looking through all of these reports. I mean, I guarantee you that there are definitely offices that get these quadrennials and there are several documents that should be with them. We require them to provide those and we’re really looking at them, because we want to make sure that we’re being fair and equitable, so if we don’t do our due diligence, we’re not, and if I had the additional person it would be a lot easier to check all of these things.”
She said that with new finance leadership in Town Hall, her office has implemented some new and better operational processes, but Rapp said there is still a lot more that can be done.
As an example, she spoke of military veterans who are eligible for certain tax credits coming down to the office, where a staff member is needed to go over documents and make sure people are aware of tax breaks they may be entitled to.
“It is a lot of detail,” she said. “No interaction is really quick and it’s all really important to make sure you have everything right.”
Grand List Increases
Previously exempt real estate that is now taxable accounted for significant growth in the 2025 Grand List, representing $34.7 million of the $73,833,817 increase in the real estate category. This included $32.9 million for the School Sisters of Notre Dame property.
Of that larger $73.8-million real estate total, $18.7 million was due to new work at ASML’s facilities at 77 Danbury and 20 Westport Rds., $11.3 million is due to the Wilton Center Lofts at 22 Hubbard Rd., and $9.5 million to the apartment complex at 141 Danbury Rd. Coupled with a small decrease in other real estate, this growth in assess value translated to $1.8 million in new tax dollars from real estate in Wilton.
In the area of personal property, an increase of $15.1 million to a total of $346,083,630 represents a 4.55% increase in this category. The resultant $369,000 in new tax dollars was primarily driven by a $21.7-million increase in the value of ASML’s personal property, juxtaposed with a reduction of $6.7 million in other accumulating personal property in town.
Motor vehicles saw a $15.7-million increase to $260,263,850, representing a 6.43% increase over 2024.
Rapp said that given how complicated and time-consuming it is to visit the ASML sites, where security is high, she does not go as often as she potentially could. She said, however, that new construction and renovation work at the corporate giant is going to result in increasedtax revenue for Wilton even more.
“The addition to the ASML property is not done yet and it’s probably a $100-million addition,” Rapp said.
Likewise, she said the property at 141 Danbury Rd. was not fully occupied when she visited it, but a future assessment will likely bring higher numbers. Consequently, she said, more tax dollars appear to be heading Wilton’s way over time.
“So I definitely see the potential for a significant amount,” Rapp said. “That’s what’s going on currently. That doesn’t include anything that we don’t yet know about that could come in, but those are things that are currently actively in the process of happening.”
Selectman Matt Raimondi pointed out that without ASML, personal property was decreasing and would have amounted to a $163,000 loss in tax dollars. Rapp said she wasn’t entirely sure what was driving that dropping number, which was a sum total of all other personal property aside from ASML.
Boucher expressed her pleasure with the numbers as they stand.
“This is an era where we’re not having diminishing Grand List, we’re seeing growth Grand List,” Boucher said. “We’re also in the prospect for more.”
She said that while home sales were down in the last quarter, it was because Wilton’s home inventory was diminishing. Prices, she pointed out, remained high for houses and property, and were moving higher.
“Even though the supply is really low, the value and the cost of our properties have gone up … The houses are still climbing in cost and value,” Boucher said.