Madison Uses Fund Balance To Keep Tax Rate Down

By Jack Kramer, Correspondent

MADISON, CT – The Board of Finance voted to allocate $600,000 from the town’s $2.5 million fund balance towards next year budget in an effort to lessen the tax blow on taxpayers.

By allocating the $600,000 – and deciding to estimate that the state’s eventual allocation to the town will be $1.372 million, the finance board set the 2017-18 mil rate at 27.30, a 3.06 percent increase over this year’s budget.

The budget anticipates a tax collection rate of 98.75 percent.

The town of Madison – like every other town in the state – has had an impossible job of setting a tax rate for next year without knowing what the final allocation of state funds will be.

The General Assembly current session ends on June 7th, and there is no indication at this point that there will be a budget in place by that time, as both Republican and Democratic lawmakers struggle to deal with a multi-billion dollar deficit

On Monday 16th voters passed both the town and Board of Education (BOE) fiscal year 2017-18’ budgets at referendum. The town budget passed with 763 “Yes” votes to 422 “No” votes. The BOE budget passed with 763 “Yes” votes and 426 “No” votes.