Slim growth of tax base suggests belt tightening isn’t over yet in Wallingford

As published in the Record Journal Friday February 1, 2013

By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff
rblair@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2225
Twitter:@RussellBlairRJ

WALLINGFORD – With little growth in the grand list and the threat of reductions in state aid, residents may see an increase in taxes when the 2013-14 budget is adopted.

The town will collect about an additional $1 million in property taxes next year after seeing almost 1 percent growth in the grand list, but the increase in the school and general government budgets is likely to top that. School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo has requested a $2.2 million increase. Town department budgets haven’t been finalized yet.

Coupled with slow economic growth and a stagnant local tax base is the state’s budget difficulty, with major deficits projected over the next two years. State Rep. Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, said that if he were a municipal official, he’d be planning for a 10to 15-percent reduction in municipal aid. “Given the state of the national economy, this problem isn’t going away,” he said. “You have to take a conservative approach. Local government has to continue to reinvent itself and downsize.”

“It is probably unlikely that we are going to be able to hold cities and towns harmless,” House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, said earlier this month.

The majority of municipal aid comes through the state Education Cost Sharing grant. The town received $22.3 million in state aid for education last year.

Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. said he doesn’t know at this point whether municipal aid will be cut and is waiting for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to release his budget on Wednesday. Dickinson said even if aid remains the same, it will be impossible to fulfill all of the departments’ budget requests at the current tax rate.

“You have to measure reduction of services against an increase in taxes,” he said.

Dickinson said he didn’t anticipate any major requests for new personnel, but pension costs will increase and he expects departments to submit requests to fund capital expenditures including new computers for the Police Department and snow plowing equipment for Public Works.

Department heads have been instructed to give “careful scrutiny” to every item in the budget, Dickinson said.

“They need to be thoughtful in their requests,” he said. “The ability to fund everything when it’s needed is difficult.”

Board of Education Chairwoman Roxane McKay said possible cuts to state aid were part of the school board’s conversation when formulating a budget.

“It would be unrealistic not to be concerned,” McKay said.

While McKay said she understands the deficit the state faces, at the same time the state Department of Education has required districts to work toward several unfunded mandates, including the Common Core State Standards and teacher evaluations.

Bridging the state budget gap will be more difficult this year because layoffs or changes in employee benefits are off the table. Malloy reached an agreement with the state employee unions two years ago that offered a four year, no-layoff clause in exchange for a two-year wage freeze.

Candelora said even if municipal aid through the Education Cost Sharing grant remains intact, municipalities may see cuts in state grants for services provided by housing authorities or senior centers.

State Rep. Mary G. Fritz, D Wallingford, said she believes cuts to municipal aid will be minimal but she doesn’t want to see any reductions in funding to cities and towns.

“When people pay state taxes, that’s their money coming home,” she said.

Wallingford Grand list is up, but not economic optimism

As published in the Record Journal, Wednesday January 30, 2013

By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff
rblair@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2225
Twitter:@RussellBlairRJ

WALLINGFORD – Its grand list grew slightly last year, but officials say the town still hasn’t experienced widespread economic recovery.

The net taxable grand list grew by $38.8 million, or 0.93 percent, in 2012. At the current tax rate of 25.98 mills, the town would receive about $1 million more in tax revenue for the 2013-14 budget. One mill represents $1 in tax on every $1,000 of assessed value.

The annual grand list is a tally of all taxable property in town, including real estate, motor vehicles and personal property: equipment and machinery used by businesses.

Assessor Shelby P. Jackson III attributed much of this year’s growth to the completion of the Campus at Greenhill, at 110 Leigus Road. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield relocated its headquarters to the office building and brought about 850 employees to the site.

“Now fully constructed, this property has added $10,184,300 in assessed value to the grand list,” Jackson wrote in a letter to Comptroller James Bowes.

But Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. said the economy is still struggling.

“I don’t think there’s been a recovery,” he said. “It’s stabilized at a new level.”

Wallingford saw a 0.78 percent decline in the motor vehicle grand list, something Jackson said hasn’t been seen in previous years. There were 469 fewer vehicles registered in town in 2012 than in 2011. But Jackson said neighboring towns, including Cheshire and Meriden, have seen shrinkage in their motor vehicle tax rolls.

Taxable real estate rose by 0.81 percent and personal property increased by 4.16 percent.

In addition to the Campus at Greenhill, Jackson mentioned a few other commercial properties built in the past year, including a CVS, a TD Bank branch and a retail plaza anchored by a Naugatuck Savings Bank branch, all of which were built on Route 5.

“Things are looking a little bit better,” Jackson said.

“We’re holding our own,” Bowes said. “It’s nothing terrible, but nothing great.”

Dickinson said the grand list is key to setting the budget for the next fiscal year. While the town knows how much money it will receive from local tax revenue, officials won’t know if state aid will be cut this year until Gov. Dannel P. Malloy unveils his budget next month.

Dickinson expects another difficult budgeting process.

“Municipal aid is on the table,” he said. “You don’t have to take a course in reading tea leaves to know it’s going to be a challenge.”

Decision on tax program coming Tuesday

As published in the Record Journal, Saturday September 24, 2011

By Robert Cyr
Record-Journal staff
rcyr@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2224

WALLINGFORD — The Town Council will decide Tuesday whether to allow developer Workstage Connecticut LLC to enter into a seven-year tax abatement program after resuming improvements to the future headquarters of Anthem Blue Cross.

The 305,000-square-foot building at 110 Leigus Road, which was mostly completed in 2007, was originally built for Mortgage Lenders Network USA Inc., but that company went bankrupt shortly after the subprime mortgage industry imploded the same year.

Workstage spent about $20 million on the project and is finishing up construction for Anthem’s move after years of inactivity, scheduled for completion in September 2012. Anthem will occupy 217,764 square feet of the campus.

“Seeing the facility come into play is a really positive step on so many different fronts,” said Donald W. Roe, economic development coordinator. “It was just sort of sitting there for years as an empty shell.”

Under the tax incentive program created in 2005, Workstage will not have to pay 20 percent of the property’s taxes for seven years. Workstage is the seventh-highest taxpayer in town with property assessed at $20,151,880. The annual break on Workstage’s tax bill would be $55,467.

According to the tax collector’s office, Workstage paid $483,654 in taxes last year and will pay $277,339 in 2011. The property’s assessed value was cut in half during this year’s revaluation, dropping from $20 million to $10 million.

To be eligible for the program, a business must make at least a $12 million investment in its property, and employ a minimum of 1,200 people in a space of no less than 60,000 square feet. The property will be revaluated again in 2016, Roe said.

The program, extended for three years in early 2010, is a payoff for the town in the long run and helps attract businesses that may stay in the area for a long time, said Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr.

The town’s grand list, which declined for the first time in more than 20 years, caused a revenue loss of $4 million at the current tax rate. Dickinson recommended using $4.6 million from the town’s reserve funds and $750,000 in Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority revenue to close the gap and fund operating expenses.

“The effort is in economic development and it helps to keep taxes lower and utilities under control,” he said. “Most towns have a program of one form or another to encourage businesses to stay in Connecticut and provide employment. We’re very interested in having businesses move to Wallingford, especially where they make that kind of investment.”

The Citizen Mike Show – A discussion with Democrat Town Councilor, Vincent Testa

The Citizen Mike Show is on each night at 9PM except Sundays on Comcast channel 18 and on U-Verse channel 99.

The February 3rd episode, featuring his discussion with Democrat Town Councilor Vincent Testa, is now available on demand. I have it cross posted here and it is available on the WPAA VideoAlive page.

The episode presents Vincent Testa, Democrat Town Councilor and the topics discussed were Wallingford's Grand List and its decline this year for the first time in over 25 years, the mill rate and taxes here in Wallingford. Also discussed was the recent revaluation and the proposed Board of Education budget among other topics such as planning and zoning and ordinances.

It is a MUST watch for anyone that would like more information on all of the details on these topics.

Again – I HIGHLY recommend the Citizen Mike Show as “must see TV.”

FROM WALLINGFORD - Grand List consequences

As published in the Record Journal, Sunday February 13, 2011

          by Jason Zandri      

Changes in area Grand Lists were recently outlined in a story in the Record Journal. Meriden showed slight growth in 2009 of 0.31 percent which was their best year since 2007. In Cheshire the increase was 0.52 percent. Southington finished up 1.17 percent.

A recent article in the New Haven Register outlined that even the City of New Haven showed a respectable 2.97 percent increase over 2009.
Things may not be back to 2007 levels but they are better than they were last year.

Here in Wallingford the Grand List went down 3.04 percent over 2009, the first decline in 25 years. (2008 to 2009 was effectively a wash at just a slight uptick.) Mayor Dickinson was quoted in the paper saying “This isn’t a rainy day — it’s a rainy decade.”

No it’s not.

2008 and the start of 2009 — sure, I can agree with that. It seemed as if the rain was never going to end. Times were the worst they have been since the Great Depression; “were” being the operative word.

Yes, unemployment is still sitting at 9 percent and that only counts the people collecting. The real number of unemployed / underemployed is 16 percent. These still are high rates but they are improved from the worst of it.

I am not suggesting that everyone go out and do the Snoopy dance. It is not going to be sunshine, rainbows, and dogs and cats living together in harmony forevermore. Certainly not right away.

Just like the winter we’re experiencing currently, it is still here and who knows how long the snow is going to stick around. Even after it’s gone there will be a ton to clean up. Repairs will continue into the summer.

Having said all that, the corner has been turned. To keep looking back is a waste of energy and shows a lack of proper direction. Also, continually having a downbeat outlook often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So what is our plan? We have great schools, competitive taxes and the lowest electric rates in New England. It’s the same tune we’ve been singing for the past quarter century. So why are we experiencing additional contraction in our Grand List? Can’t the general public hear us singing our siren song anymore?

Take another look at the numbers above. Our downdraft in the Grand List is pretty significant especially when you consider it has occurred AFTER everyone else has clearly begun their respective, slight recoveries.

When you consider that and the fact that we have things to offer that other towns cannot you have to ask yourself “isn’t it time we took another look at our playbook”?

Wallingford does many smart things and they have worked well for years. I wouldn’t suggest changing anything that still works. There are clearly things that no longer work the way they used to and we do need to look at changing up our game.

We are competing with the likes of Cheshire, Meriden and North Haven for new residents and businesses and the tax dollars (and the tax costs) that come with them.

We need to be proactively going after them, courting them if you will.
We can’t rely on old standbys anymore of “our taxes are low and we have the best electric rates.”

Our taxes are lower but the disparity isn’t what it once was and the same is true of our electric rates; they are cheaper but not as much cheaper as they once were.

These things alone are clearly not enough to entice new families and businesses to make Wallingford their home.

If our town is to grow and prosper we must move forward proactively; we will not be able to continue to do it as we have in the past. The game has changed and if we are to keep playing we need to roll with the change and tackle it head on.

Wallingford’s grand list shrinks by 0.04%

So here is the five minute summary:

• The grand list has decreased by 0.04%
• This is a decline of about $300,000.00
• For the purposes of budgeting, the practice has been to assume that the grand list will generate between $700,000 and $1 million of new revenue from taxes alone for the town

The view from here is even dimmer; what this means is that an increases in costs and expenditures which include capital purchases as well as increases in salaries are going to come 100% on the backs of the tax payers as there is a loss of revenue instead of an offsetting gain from growth.

With revaluation coming up it will be interesting to see how much of that is going to land on the backs of Wallingford’s businesses and the residents of town.

Technorati Tags: Wallingford,taxes,budget expense,finances,grand list

GRAND LIST - No-growth grand lists mean facing up to ‘sobering reality’

Wallingford’s inventory actually declines, a sign of hard times

WALLINGFORD — The town released its 2009 grand list Friday, showing a decrease of $1,676,759, or about 0.04 percent, in the value of the town’s taxable property and real estate.

Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. termed the surprising drop a “sobering reality” of the tough economic times the town, state and nation are facing.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever seen this,” said Dickinson, who has held office since 1984. “I would say it’s a more troubled fiscal situation for the town go­ing into the 2011 budget than it was for the 2010 budget.”

The town’s current budget of $140.3 million grew by less than half a percent from the previous year, but from 2007 to 2008 the grand list grew 1.02 percent, giv­ing the town with an additional $1 million in tax revenue.

Dickinson said the new grand list, at $4.3 billion, means the town will enter the next budget year about $300,000 short in tax revenue, making an already tight budget even tighter.

“The bottom line is there will not be revenues generated beyond what we received in the current year for budget purposes,” Dickinson said. “So every budget that requests an increase, there is no new money generated to cover that increase ... there is no new money except for asking for higher taxes.”

Two of the list’s three categories, real estate and motor vehicles, actu­ally increased, at 0.62 percent and 0.95 percent, respectively; but per­sonal or business property saw a sharp decrease, of almost 8 percent. Assessor Shelby Jackson attributed the drop in personal property to two major factors: more businesses al­lowing equipment to depreciate without replacing it, and a new state law that exempts some machinery and equipment that had previously been taxable.

“It’s sort of like getting hit dou­ble,” Jackson said. “The assets are going down and we’re exempting more of what we would normally tax.”

Among the town’s top 10 taxpay­ers there was little movement, with Bristol-Myers Squibb far outpacing the other nine on the list with $126.95 million in taxable property and real estate.

The town’s seventh-highest taxpayer, Work­stage Connecti­cut, owners of the 325,000­ square foot Campus at Greenhill on Leigus Road, owes more than $750,000 in back taxes and is be­ing foreclosed on by the town. Comptroller James Bowes said it was wrong to as­sume that the town would not recoup that money. “The law office is all over it,” he said. Dickinson called the grand list a “critical tool” in fashioning the town’s annual budget, which by Town Charter he must complete by April 1.

“This is one of those indicators that really tells you what is going on with the economy and what will have a direct effect on our delivery of serv­ices,” Dickinson said, adding that it appears the town will have to face “a lot of tough decisions” in the coming months.

The grand list is not officially ac­cepted by the state until May 1. Be­fore that, the town’s Board of As­sessment Appeals will consider appeals from property owners who want to dispute assessments. The grand list will affect tax bills due in July 2010 and January 2011.

Technorati Tags: Wallingford,Grand List,taxes,budget