Tax Rate to Increase to 10.11 mills

Taxes for Greenwich property owners will increase by nearly 1.25 mills, based upon the rates ad opted by the Board of Estimate and Taxation Thursday night.

The current rate of 8.87 mills per $1,000 of assessed valuation will rise to 10.11 mills per $1,000 assessed valuation. For residents who live in neighborhoods with sewer service will also see increases of  0.442 mills on the dollar and 0.088 mils on the dollar for the town’s sewer improvement fund. Nearly 2/3’s of the town’s 21,000+ property-owners will be assessed for sewer taxes, officials said.

The tax increase is based upon the $358 million town, Board of Education and capital improvement projects budget that was approved early Tuesday after a marathon 5-hour-plus gathering of the Representative Town Meeting.  The new tax rate will be reflected in tax bills that will be mailed by the town next month.

The new tax rates, which become effective with the July 1 start of the 2011-2012 fiscal year, were adopted unanimously by the BET Thursday night.

The BET rescheduled its meeting to Thursday night so that tax bills can be processed and printed on time, BET chairman Stephen Walko said.

In other business, the board decided to wait for additional on how 45 volunteer firefighters were deemed eligible to receive a $1,000 tax credit for their home assessments. The BET wants definitive confirmation from the town’s volunteer firefighter coordinator that the 45 eligible firefighters have met eligibility criterion including the number of calls they responded to and training.

The board decided to wait until its June meeting to deliberate and vote on a new debt service policy. The proposal would cap the town's borrowing for major capital improvement budget at $200 million. With the new 2011-2012 budget, the town will bond $130 million in capital improvement projects.