Cuts Put Cheshire In Line for One Mill Increase

Town officials have slashed Michael Milone’s budget, reducing the percentage increase by 2-percent for the 2013-14 fiscal year, but local taxpayers are still looking at an increase in the range of one mill.

The Cheshire education budget will see a decrease in the upcoming fiscal year of $800,000, officials said, die in large part to a surplus in the medical benefits budget, as well as dipping into the debt service reserves and cutting lines on the town side by $1.9 million.

If the council were to approve the budget as proposed during their meeting on Tuesday, the mill rate would increase by 1.63 percent – exactly one mill from 27.3 to 28.3 – Finance Planner Jim Jaskot told the Cheshire Citizen last week.

The increase in 2012-13 was 1.07 percent and over the last four years has averaged 1.81 percent annually, according to Cheshire Town Manager Michael Milone.

“I’ve never had to start off with a budget process as difficult and challenging as this was,” Milone said in a March interview. “(With cuts to funding), we didn’t want to decimate services but we didn’t want to raise taxes too significantly either.”

Milone’s initial budget, before revisions, had requested a $3.06 million increase and represented a 1.07 mill increase in the community. Reductions changed that, but due to changes in state revenue including drastic cuts in state aid the town still has a need to increase local property taxes..

Under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget proposal, the town would see an immediate reduction of $2.19 million as a result of the state’s payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) program. In addition, Cheshire is facing cuts in areas that include an additional $2 million in Mashantucket Pequot & Mohegan Grant funding and manufacturing grants.

Make sure to like Cheshire Patch on Facebook and follow on Twitter for breaking news, daily updates and more!