Town May Receive

More Money From The State

By Steve Bigham

Newtown stands to receive an additional $600,000 in state revenue this year under a proposal currently before the Appropriations Committee of the General Assembly. That’s good news, especially in a year that sees local taxpayers facing a 2.9 mill increase in the tax rate.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal announced the news at last week’s Board of Selectmen meeting after receiving notice from the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM), a lobby group for Connecticut towns.

The additional money would come in the form of Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) money given to municipalities who play host to state-owned property. In Newtown’s case, much of that money would be in lieu of local taxes for the Garner Correctional Facility. This year, the town received $1.73 million in PILOT funds. The current proposal would raise that figure to $2.3 million.

An additional $600,000 in state revenue would drop the tax rate by 0.4 mill – essentially lowering the increase to 2.5 mills. However, state House and Senate leaders will not actually vote on this proposal until May, long after Newtown holds its budget referendum. The state budget will be done by the time the Legislative Council sets the mill rate in May.

According to reports from Hartford, the state plans to increase PILOT funds from 45 percent to 60 percent of what a municipality would have received on the tax rolls. Of course, the measure must first get through the Appropriations Committee and then get approval from both the House and the Senate.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal believes an additional $600,000 in unanticipated revenue will make this year’s $69 million budget more palatable. He suggested residents contact their state representatives to urge them to support the bill.

 Finance Director Ben Spragg says he and the Legislative Council must often estimate state revenue long before figures on state aid are actually set.

 “We’ll take the best available information at that time and set the mill rate based on the latest information,” he said. “We also rely a lot on CCM. They are an excellent resource to try to project revenues.”

“Generally, we’ve not seen major shifts in revenue from the state in recent years. It’s been relatively flat,” he said. “But if we’re getting $600,000 more, that’s good news.”

Legislative Council member Melissa Pilchard believes the town’s next Charter Revision Commission should review the current budget timetable. Currently, she said, the council is done with the budget far too soon.

“Everyone else is still working on theirs. We stopped about a month ago. We’re done too soon,” she said. “I don’t think there’s enough time between when we get the budget and when we have to finish the budget.”

In the current budget, Newtown is receiving $6.7 million in state aid in the 1999-2000 budget – nearly $250,000 (3.7 percent) more than what it received the year before and about $300,000 more than what had originally been expected.

Increased revenue from the state is expected once again this year due to what has been a strong state economy and robust stock market, which continues to drive up the tax surplus.

Last year’s budget saw an increase of $407,000 in PILOT funds.