Town Surplus Projected

To Be $2.44 Million

By Steve Bigham

The Town of Newtown tax office recorded what might have been an all-time high 98.31 percent collection rate in 2001-2002.

The town received about $700,000 more than what had been anticipated in tax payments and it played a large role in creating a surplus for the fiscal year that ended June 30.

Finance Director Ben Spragg announced that the town had $2.44 million in leftover money from the 2001-02 budget, up $81,000 from a year ago. That means there will be no negative impact on the revenue side.

The fact that the town held off on making any debt service payments for items associated with Fairfield Hills also helped boost the surplus.

A year ago, the town recorded a budget surplus that was $400,000 less than the year before. That forced town officials this past budget season to use $400,000 from its capital reserve fund in order to meet the revenue requirements.

The capital reserve fund is used to stabilize the tax rate by helping to pay for large, nonrecurring expenses that would likely cause the town’s tax rate to increase more dramatically year-to-year.

The Legislative Council first established the capital reserve fund in 1994 when it put in $169,000.

Town officials are careful not to use 100 percent of any surplus to offset taxes in the following year’s budget. Mr Spragg said using all the money to keep the mill rate down would cause problems during next year’s budget season as budget makers would have to raise taxes simply to maintain the status quo.

The finance director said his final year figures are still just estimates. Concrete numbers, including the results of an audit report, are not due out until later in the year.