Next Year's Town Budget Offers New Canaan Residents A Tax Cut

NEW CANAAN, CT — With New Canaan and other communities still grappling with the economic slowdown from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, local residents will receive a slight break in their 2020-2021 property tax bills, according to officials.

The town has wrapped up its work on next year's budget, which takes effect on July 1, and it includes a small cut to bring the mill rate down to 18.16; the current mill rate is 18.24.

For 2020-2021, New Canaan's total town budget was approved at of $152.22 million, which represents less than a 1 percent increase over the current year's expenditure of $151.94 million.

Of that $152.22 million, the Board of Education will spend $90.88 million, which represents a decrease of less than 1 percent from the current education expenditure. The operating portion of education budget is rising by 2.5 percent, but the school system's health care costs are dropping, which is what's driving down the overall education budget.

"With this budget our schools get a 2.5 percent increase in their operations budget, and they'll continue to be the #1 public school system in Connecticut," said New Canaan Town Council Chairman John Engel. "This approved budget lowers the tax rate on every household and business at a pivotal time in history."

The town government side of the overall budget, which includes police officers, firefighters, and public works and recreational crews, is $28.46 million for 2020-2021, a drop of close to 1.8 percent from the current year.

The mill rate represents $1 for every $1,000 of assessed value in a property, or in this case, $18.16 for every $1,000 in assessed value.

For example, a $1 million property would be assessed at 70 percent of its value, or $700,000. With a mill rate of 18.16, that property's tax bill would be $12,712; if the mill rate had remained at 18.24, the tax bill would be $12,768.

New Canaan First Selectman Kevin Moynihan says that despite the pandemic leading to the closure of Town Hall in March and meetings moving over to Zoom, town officials were able to finalize the budget without any noticeable interruption.

"With regard to 2020-2021 budget, I am most happy that all three [town] bodies (Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance and Town Council) exercised great spending restraint and that we entered the COVID crisis with a very healthy General Fund balance, which protects us from a decline in revenues from the COVID-related downturn," Moynihan told Patch.

As for how much of an impact the coronavirus pandemic will have on the budget remains to be seen, according to Moynihan.

Municipalities and the state are allowing residents to defer paying taxes on July 1, and some sales tax and other government revenue sources took a hit during the shutdowns.

"It's not clear yet how much next year's budget will be affected by COVID," Moynihan said. "I think we will know more by end of June and into July, so I am reserving forming any opinions until then."