Proposed city budget includes tax increase

Members of the Fairfield City Council?s ways and means committee voted 3-0 to recommend passage of the 2014-2015 budget they pored over Thursday night.

The proposed budget includes increasing the city property tax by about $1.36 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. The current city property tax rate is $15.98 per $1,000 valuation, and under the proposed budget it would rise to $17.34 per $1,000.

The proposed increase would be nine times higher than last year?s increase, when the city tax rate rose 15 cents from $15.83 to $15.98 per $1,000 valuation.

City Administrator Kevin Flanagan said the tax increase can be attributed to two main factors ? the capital improvement fund and the debt levy to pay the $3 million bond for the pool and indoor gym project.

In November, Fairfield voters approved a ballot measure to restore the capital improvement reserve fund, which had expired. That fund adds 67.5 cents per $1,000 valuation to Fairfield residents? tax bill. The money will go toward repairing streets in town.

The levy was in effect from 1999 to 2009. Fairfield Mayor Ed Malloy said in an interview last fall it was simply an oversight that the levy was not put back on the ballot for renewal before it expired. The city has been without the funds from the levy since 2009. The levy is expected to generate about $200,000 annually.

The debt service levy to pay for the $3 million bond for the pool and gym adds about 79 cents per $1,000 valuation. Flanagan said a few of the levies will go down, such as those for employee benefits and local emergency management.

Ways and means committee member Jessica Ledger-Kalen said she?s comfortable with the budget in its current form.

?These are things that need to happen,? she said. ?We have more capital projects this year than last year, and most of our new expenses are for capital projects.?

Committee member Daryn Hamilton said he felt the tax increases were justifiable. He said both the street improvement levy and the $3 million bond were approved directly by the voters when they went to the polls.

He said one important piece of the budget the council is still looking at is the proposed sale of Logan Apartments.

?Several of us on the council think it?s an asset the city no longer needs,? he said. ?There are better companies out there that can take care of that property better than the city can.?

Committee chairman John Revolinski said it gives him no pleasure to recommend a budget to the council with a tax increase.

?As a taxpayer, I?m upset that our levy is so high,? he said. ?But being on the council and seeing the needs of the city government, I?m comfortable with it. The cost of operating the city hasn?t increased since last year. It?s just the special projects that have increased the total levy.?

Revolinski said he would like Fairfield to undertake measures to make the city run as efficiently as possible with as little waste as possible. He said he has seen other cities do exactly that and he would like Fairfield to follow their lead.

Revolinski said the plan is for the full council to set the public hearing for the budget at its meeting Monday. He hopes the budget will be approved at the council?s first meeting the following month, March 10.