West Hartford OKs Budget, Raises Taxes (But Not As Much)

WEST HARTFORD, CT — Months of planning and meetings culminated this week with West Hartford adopting a new spending plan that will raise taxes, but not as high as originally thought.

With a 6-3 vote along party lines on Wednesday, April 24, Democrats on the West Hartford Town Council adopted a new 2024-25 budget for the town and schools.

The Republican dissenters on the budget vote were Alberto Cortes, Mary Fay, and Mark Zydanowicz.

Later, the council voted 7-2 on a new tax rate to help pay for it. Dissenting on the tax rate vote were Republicans Cortes and Zydanowicz.

When the vote was tallied, West Hartford had a $347.54 million town/school budget for 2024-25, one that is little more than 5 percent larger than current spending.

As for what taxpayers will pay, the state-mandated cap on motor vehicle taxes keeps that mill rate at 32.46, so residents' car/vehicle taxes will not change.

What will change, however, is residential and personal property taxes, with the mill rate going up to 42.35 mills from 40.92 — a 1.43 increase in the tax rate.

For a home assessed at $300,000, the new mill rate means taxpayers will have to pay West Hartford $429 more in taxes this year compared to a year ago.

That tax hike, however, is smaller than earlier versions of the budget, which had the mill rate increase approaching 2 full mills, which would have meant a $600 hike.

The spending package adopted by council members included a $200.8 million education budget (more than 5 percent larger).

West Hartford Town Manager Rick Ledwith said town staff and council members were able to tweak the budget sufficiently to bring a proposed 5 percent tax hike down to 3.49 percent.

"Over the course of the last several weeks and working with our council, we have identified additional revenue sources and expense reductions," Ledwith said.

Democrat Ben Wenograd, the deputy mayor and chairman of the council's finance and administration committee, said he hoped for a unanimous vote supporting the budget.

"We are hopeful that this is going to be a bipartisan vote, if at all possible and we, certainly, approached these past few months with that goal," Wenograd said, commending town staff for their work on crafting the budget.

But the vote went along party lines, as Republican concerns about spending and taxes fueled their "no" votes.

"I'm very, very happy that these adjustments have been made. Budgeting is never easy," GOP council member Mary Fay said. "Where we are is an improvement over the initial budget."

But her main concern was the use of the American Rescue Plan Act post-pandemic money as a one-time $1.5 million source of revenue to maintain the budget.

Fay said she was concerned about the town having to come up with that next year without that revenue coming. She said she was also worried about West Hartford's taxes.

"I am concerned about the level of our mill rate. Though its better than the original forecast, 42.35 is not a low number," Fay said.

Other GOP colleagues agreed.

"I feel for those families that are just trying to hang on in there," Cortes said. "The market is hot in West Hartford and they're going to get impacted harder with the next revaluation. What can we do better for two years down the road?"

West Hartford Mayor Shari Cantor espoused the virtues of West Hartford, touting resident satisfaction with town services, schools and, even, law enforcement and emergency services.

She said much of the budget was put together with that in mind, namely maintaining those aspects of the town that residents support.

"All of those things are investments that we are making in this community," Cantor said. "Our budget is 87 percent real property taxes. It's up to our community to make the changes to make our community what we are. And it has a direct impact on quality of life."

She said the difficulty for taxpayers is high property values pay off when selling, but in the short term they also lead to higher taxes.

"As we see people's values of their homes go up, we know that is a two-sided story," Cantor said.

For the minutes of the April 24 West Hartford Town Council meeting, click on this link.

For past and present budget information in West Hartford, click on this link.

From March 19: 'Tax Hike Expected In West Hartford, Budget Hearings Start Tuesday'