Groton Town Council approves 8.7 percent tax rate increase
Groton — The Town Council voted Tuesday night to raise the town tax rate 8.7 percent, from 21.73 mills to 23.63 mills, to fund the budget for the coming fiscal year.
The increase translates into an additional $190 in taxes for each $100,000 of assessed property value.
“I would rather vote against it and have all of my teeth pulled than pass a budget with an over 8 percent increase, but I don’t think we have a choice at this point,” Councilor Diane Barber said. “We’re between a rock and a hard place.”
Councilors voted 6-2 to raise the tax rate. Mayor Bruce Flax and Councilor Rich Moravsik voted against, saying they would support a lesser increase in the mill rate.
Councilors are struggling because they don't know how much Groton will lose in state aid, but the town has been threatened with millions in losses. The council based the tax rate on an estimated $5 million loss in state education funding to Groton.
Flax and Moravsik wanted to assume a more modest loss of $3 million instead. If the state ultimately were to cut Groton more, at least it would know it tried to minimize the impact on taxpayers, Flax said.
But others said such a gamble was too risky.
“My glasses are not rose-tinted enough for that right now,” Councilor Dean Antipas said.
Barber said assuming a $5 million loss was a gamble, as it could end up worse. If Groton loses a greater amount of funding, the town would have to use fund balance to make up the difference, send out supplemental tax bills, make additional budget cuts or try some combination.
If the town fares better than it expects, councilors could restore items cut from the budget, save the money to prepare for the following year or use it to reduce taxes later, councilors said.
Taxes are going up even though the council and Representative Town Meeting cut spending for the 2017-18 fiscal year. The Representative Town Meeting approved a budget of about $118.9 million, a decline of about 2.2 percent from current spending.
RTM member Frederick Kent said he argued for deeper cuts to the schools, but they didn't pass. The decision on the tax rate went as expected, he said after the vote.
“It still doesn’t answer the question of what we’re going to get from Hartford,” he said.
Comment threads are monitored for 48 hours after publication and then closed.
