Fairfield Mill Rate Increase Drops Again; Finalized By BOF

FAIRFIELD, CT — When Fairfield’s Board of Finance met Thursday to set the mill rate for the coming year, Chair James Brown began the discussion on an optimistic note.

“Maybe tonight we can save the taxpayers some more dollars,” he said.

In fact, the board saved Fairfield taxpayers an additional $465,271 by unanimously voting to lower the mill rate increase from a projected 0.86 percent to 0.71 percent. The projected increase changed from 0.78 percent Monday to 0.86 percent Thursday after the Board of Assessment Appeals approved more property assessment reductions than anticipated.

Fairfield’s $332.3 million budget for the 2021-22 financial year was approved Monday by a divided Representative Town Meeting. When the budget was originally presented several months ago by First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick, the estimated mill rate hike was nearly 2 percent, but the town meeting and Board of Finance reduced the increase by cutting more than $3 million from the spending plan.

The Board of Finance further lowered the mill rate Thursday by adjusting Fairfield's tax collection rate from 98.56 percent to 98.71 percent after learning the town was on track to end the current tax cycle with a 98.8 percent collection rate.

“These numbers are tied together,” Vice Chair Christopher DeWitt said. “So when we set a mill rate we’re going to de facto set a collection rate.”

Brown urged the board to think of the 2021-22 budget as the second part of a two-year spending plan after officials chose last year to use $10.4 million in reserves to avoid raising the mill rate — a move that resulted in additional funding needs for the coming year. Brown also addressed comments made during Monday’s town meeting that Fairfield’s multimillion-dollar surplus — $2.6 million of which is related to tax collections — constituted overtaxing.

“This was never about overtaxing,” he said, noting the town faces millions in costs related to the aftermath of the fill pile contamination scandal. “This is going to require significantly more financial resources in the coming year that have yet to be determined.”