OLD SAYBROOK — Voters will get to decide May 13 on the town’s proposed $52.8 million budget, representing an estimated mill rate of 15.5, up from 15.2.
First Selectman Carl Fortuna said he’s “reasonably happy” with the budget and the 0.3 mill rate increase is “probably one of the lowest increases in the area that I've seen.”
The budget vote will take place from noon to 8 p.m. May 13 held at Old Saybrook High School. The annual town budget meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Old Saybrook Middle School.
The drivers behind the increase included a 9% jump in health insurance, salary raises and the decrease in motor vehicle tax revenue, Fortuna said. Though he added the health insurance increase “was not horrible but more than what we’ve had in past years.”
“We settled a couple of contracts, and the raises were at 3% as opposed to what we’ve normally gone for which is two, two-and-half percent. As a result of a variety of factors — trying not to go to arbitration but still ending up with a reasonable deal for the taxpayer. That’s where we ended up,” Fortuna said.
One way to blunt the potential tax increase was to “bump of revenues a little bit,” Fortuna said. “We’re looking at revenues and expenditures and we’ve exceeded revenue expectations for five years in a row. Still very conservative, but we're going to bump them a little bit.”
The general town budget is $21.9 million, up $361,000 or 1.7 percent from last fiscal year, Fortuna said, while the education budget is $30.8 million, a $1 million increase or 2.7% increase. Both budgets combined represent roughly a 3.5% increase, he said. Last year's education budget was $29.8 million, while the town budget was $21.6 million for 2024-25.
“They both are on the lower side, certainly,” Fortuna said about 2025-26.
The initial proposed education budget was trimmed throughout the budget process with the education budget’s increase of $1.32 million being cut by $300,000 to $1.042 million.
The state’s recent rule on valuation of motor vehicles negatively affected the town’s revenue, Fortuna noted.
“We had good growth in the grand list, but it was offset by the motor vehicle change, obviously. Our budget would have been lower except for that. That's true in every town,” Fortuna said.
He noted the town opted not to take the higher valuation option for new motor vehicles that state lawmakers offered in an amended motor vehicle schedule. The state had offered towns a depreciation schedule valuing value new motor vehicles at 90% instead of 85%.
“And as I look at it, it's 5% of motor vehicle taxes that stay in people's pockets that just don't come into town coffers. I mean, we could have made the budget look a little bit better,” Fortuna said.
The new formula for motor vehicles valuation translates to about $320,000 in lost revenue, with motor vehicle assessed value dropping some 13.6% on the grand list, Fortuna said.
The town’s total grand list is down .36 percent from $3.315 billion in 2023 to $3.303 billion in 2024. Buffering that was robust real estate values.
The increase in home values “mostly driven by home improvements and new construction, and resulting in a grand list growth of $11 million,” Fortuna said, has helped offset the effects of the motor vehicle valuation and means about $167,000 in new revenue.