001afternoon. Rainy Monday afternoon. Um, and I I think the weather's going to get worse. I hope we don't have power outages, but uh my brother just came in from Charlotte and said that Charlotte airport is now closed. So, I think travel is going to be hard. Um but uh I am Mayor Sherry Caner and I want to welcome you. Uh we decided to do uh sort of a community conversation about one of the most important things we do is setting our town budget which is the overall town budget includes a line item for the board of education. The town council does not have line item decision-making by state statute, but an overall bottom line uh number to come up with uh a mill rate uh that we need to um impose on our uh residents.
002Um and just uh a quick overview, I'm going to introduce our our the people that are are part of this presentation in a couple of minutes, but Connecticut uh is very very dependent on property taxes. It's the way it was designed many many many years ago. Uh and um West Hartford, every town is a little bit different. Some towns have a lot of corporations. Some have uh may may have state property which is subject to pilot grant. Some might have some kind of different mixture of of taxpayers in their community. West Hartford has uh largely residential taxpayers. The taxpayers in West Hartford are uh pay n well 90% of our budget. a little less. 90% of our budget is comes from property taxes and 90% of that comes from residential property taxes, different than Farmington,
003different than some other communities around us um and throughout the state. Um but we all all have a a very large uh funding, you know, was primarily from property taxes. It's a very stable form of of funding uh as opposed to some other states that rely more on sales taxes or some other uh taxes that are fluid. But what um Connecticut by statute, we don't share in any of that revenue. None. So, um that's a challenge and year after year it's becoming more and more of a challenge. Uh and so we have incredible people that try to navigate these challenges and still keep us uh one of the top communities in the country uh and the state. uh and we know that without certain investments by the feedback that we get we could not be
004uh a top community. Um and so property values and all that our quality of life all of that is impacted by the decisions we have made and this decisions we will continue to make. Uh so we have our superintendent of schools Paul Vinis here. Uh we have Shannon Marman who is the board of ed chair. Again remember I said we only have line item. uh they are the decision makers, the governance of how that money is spent. Latoya Fernandez um is also on the board of education and then the deputy mayor is Deb Polland and then we have someone that puts all the pieces together and makes our town run every day. Our town manager Rick Ledwith and a lot of people do think that um you I'm a just a little uh little information.
005I'm a volunteer. All of our council members are mayor uh is a volunteer position. we get no money. Um we hire the town manager and the town manager actually runs the town. We're we're more of a policy board of and we um work with our town manager on how we want to implement uh the town and how the town but he is responsible of for how everything runs. So uh I am going to introduce Shannon and have her say a few words. >> Talk to the fuzzy mic. >> Talking to the fuzzy mic. So good afternoon. Um, as Mayor Caner said, I'm Shannon Marimone. I'm chairperson of the board of education here in West Hartford. Very proud to be in that role. And Latoya and I and our other five board members who are not
006here um are very interested in having this information shared as widely as possible. Um, so that the community is informed about the decisions being made about the budget, specifically the budget relative to the schools. Um, and we know that that's a significant portion of the budget. um and also a huge point of pride for West Hartford. And so just want to make sure the community understands what goes into it, how Superintendent Vicinus has thought about the process for proposing the budget and hear from all of you about questions and suggestions and concerns that you might have relative to that. Um because that will inform our decision as a board as we go through the next few weeks and move towards a formal approval of the board of education budget which then goes back to the
007town council for their review. So, um, so that's why these community forums are exist and we're glad that you're here and, um, please tell others, too, because we have two more community forums coming up on Wednesday of this week and Monday of next week. Um, and we just really want to hear from the community at large. So, thank you for that. I'm just going to add and just to add to Shannon's uh comments, we by statute have to do two public hearings, which we do, and the and the board has you have two also, right? By statute, but it's we receive comments. uh and we felt we weren't getting enough community input. So we established these community conversations to be able to engage uh the community. So these are in um extra like I've been
008on the council for a long time. We had not done those these before. Uh last year we started it and we got some I think some meaningful feedback uh and I hope that uh we we receive that as well. So before and now I'll kick it over to our superintendent of schools Paul Vasinis. >> Thank you so much Madame Mayor. find a good spot to stand here where I'm not blinded. Good afternoon. Thank you for being here. Um, as said, my name is Paul Vicinas. I've been with the district for uh just over 30 years. Um, all of my time in education here in West Harford. I'm very proud to be serving as the superintendent of schools. uh and I do feel that we have uh an absolutely exceptional uh school district and there are
009so many metrics that bear that out in terms of a return on investment. Um, I'm here to talk to you as I about the recommended budget that I put forward to the board of education um and that the board of education will now be reviewing and considering relative to kind of kind of uh what's in it and recognizing that um as a board of education we do constitute roughly 60% of the town's overall budget when you look at the town budget. Um that is uh that is not unusual. Uh that is pretty much how it lays out across every community within uh Connecticut. What is different as the mayor has already aptly put out is the is the amount that is borne uh through personal taxes, property taxes in comparison to other communities who may
010receive a greater amount of state aid or a greater amount of federal aid. Um by and large, and you'll probably hear this statement from both Rick and from myself, we are people organizations. Um the the salaries and benefits constitute o uh just about 82% of the entirety of this board of education budget. Um and those people translate into programs. They translate into um the music and performing arts and visual arts programs for which we are noted, for which we have earned national acclaim. They are translated certainly into the classroom teaching positions that uh continue to place West Harford uh in the top tiers in the country. They're translated into our gifted and talented program. Uh but also the support services that we have for students, whether they're multilingual students, whether they're special education. Um we
011have so many programs that are the pride of this district uh that unquestionably we talk about oursel as a destination district. Um, in fact, I owe, you know, I'm in regular communication with folks from out of state who will look my name up, who will email and ask about, you know, the opportunities to move here and I and I will plug them in um to folks that can help answer those questions. Um, so this year in terms of in terms and and I I think it's I'll I'll either close with it or mention it here. We have no fewer than seven. I think it depending on what you want to call an educator of the year and if it's at a state level or if it's more localized um I could call it eight or
012nine but we have seven educators of the year state educators of the year just within the last two years uh here on our roles here within West Hartford and when you trace backward you know we can point to many many others um we just have an exceptional staff that does everything in support of our educational mission. Um what drives uh the budget is certainly the salary line and there are increases in that salary line they are market negotiated. Um the overall when you put all of the different unions together so not just the teachers but school nurses but cafeteria workers etc etc etc. Um we're looking at an overall 5.6% increase in the salary line for the coming year. Um, and with that, in addition to that, we also, um, we had a lot of
013moveins last summer, um, late in the game and we had to add, just as an example, we had to add six elementary positions after the board of education had passed the budget. Um, so we have to make up um, that that's a part of what that 5.6 I don't want you to think that's a 5.6% raise for everyone. um that that's a big part of that in terms of uh what ended up having to go into it. In addition, we're contending with very significant increases um within our medical benefits within our insurance and that's happening across the state. Historically, more than 10 years ago, West Harford was self-insured. Um a long time ago, we moved to the state partnership program and that for the board of education, that's been exceptional. We've had year-over-year uh very
014significant savings. But this year, across the board, whether you're self-insured or whether you're part of the state plan, you're seeing very significant increases. Um, our initial budget was based on a 12 and a half% increase uh for that. I do believe we have an updated estimate that will be uh that we were recently given by the plan that's going to reduce that slightly. Um, but that's that's the volume of increase that that we're seeing. and I have colleagues in other districts that are self-insured that are seeing 20 25% increases in their insurance lines. So, it's it's pretty significant. What I'm hoping for this year, knowing kind of where those two very significant drivers are and how high they are, is I proposed to the board of education a maintenance budget, which is to say, um,
015I'm not trying to add anything new. There are there are quite a number of initiatives that we are very interested in that I understand the community is very interested in in terms of an expansion of prek and other such things. Um and we've looked at it and just said with the with this with the really with the insurance kind of coming on top of some increases that I'll talk about with transportation and some other things. It wasn't the year to try to do it. Um, so I'm looking to essentially preserve the programming that we have. I have a very modest cut of 2.6 positions overall across the district. Um, and that comes on the heels of eliminating 20 positions over the last two years. Um, and and that that was not cuts to programs that
016those were efficiencies and those were not the positions under ESSER. That's at least another 25 positions when we had the funds under ESSER that were temporary and we've since let go of. So we we have cut things very very lean. Um and uh and and what's being what's being offered is essentially in preservation of the programming that we have. Um as I said that's 80%. out of district tuition and transportation are other significant drivers that really really um increase to our to our budget. Um last year the whole story that we were talking about with the community, with the board, with the town was in and around out of district tuition. There were um very significant increases. There was a dramatic shortfall in funding at the state level. And at the 11th hour, our legislators
017and specifically our West Hartford legislators did the hard work um and and passed a resolution to support additional funds not only to West Hartford but to the state as a whole. Um we've been doing very significant work to bring students back to our district, talking with our parents, talking about the programming that we can provide. So, I'm I'm glad to say that we have flat costs in out of district tuition. That's based on returning um I have to look at my notes, but somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 or more students um back from an out of district placement for very specialized programming um based on the skills that they've attained and programming expansions that we've had to be able to serve them here. Um unfortunately, it's not a cost savings. all that it's done
018is kind of staved off what our spiraling costs in out of district tuition. Um, and where we are with our state funding, we're we're pretty good right now. We expect to get about 67% reimbursement for excess costs over the over the state threshold. Um, that's still a shortfall from fully funding that to 100% cost. That's what that's what's kind of expected, what everyone would want. Uh, the state's never been there. historically they were up to 80% and if and if they could get back to 80% that would be amazing. Uh but we we truly and honestly don't anticipate that trans so our out of district costs last year to this year are flat. Our transportation costs will add roughly one million just under $1 million to the budget and that's based on new contractual rates
019and is driven significantly by um you know I think the the metric was oh I'm forgetting just from the last meeting some out of district when when we have to transport students we are legally required to transport students to out of district placements that adds to the cost. Um in light of this uh we do utilize regional busing routes. That's something that we have been doing and that we continue to explore to see how we can expand upon it. Um and another significant change that we're making within this budget uh pending approval from our board of education is to offer in district uh seats to our intensive behavioral program at uh out of district tuition rate for surrounding districts. We feel that we can do that because we do see that we will have some
020reductions and some seats open. So rather than look to necessarily uproot a lot of students and and transfer them, which can be perceived as a hardship on families, we can um we can offer a number of seats, still provide all of our same service and not have any fear of overcrowding and offer those up as a tuition basis for other districts, especially smaller surrounding districts that don't have the ability to program uh for the very rich array of special education programming that we offer. Um, programming needs is the last driver and this is actually a very relatively small driver as based on the fact that it's a maintenance budget. Um, our programming needs, any new positions that we're adding are mainly within special education, but they're offsets by other cuts that we're able to make
021with some uh with some lower class uh enrollment at our high school level. Uh so overall um while I am adding some positions to the special education, there's a net decrease of 2.6 positions overall. As I've mentioned, um I am seeking to preserve our existing programming um and our existing class size guidelines as that was a very hot topic of feedback from parents. Last year, parents actually came out and and asked the board of education to look closely to see if we could reduce class sizes. Um, and that's another change that I know there's a lot of interest around, but not one that that I was proposing in this budget given given the costs. Um, there are some modest adjustments that I am making uh to support students with needs to include uh an increase
022of a half-time counseling position at Bristo Middle School. Um, and a change to the supervision model for our multilingual learners, our ESOL population, which has been uh growing here in the district. What I share with this, what I believe is up on the screen, uh, the return on investment for our programming really is, as was mentioned, nationally lauded programs. Our high schools are an easy example to point to because they rest on the foundation of our elementary and our middle. Our high schools are continuously uh, ranking in the top two to 3% nationally, and they've earned gold status with the College Board uh, since the creation of that recognition two years ago. In addition, we're opening up our pathways for career and technical education and we have a stated goal to become a leader in
023the not only in the state but in the country in terms of computer science education. The summary uh we we are operating this year on with an operating budget of just over 214 million. um the roll forward when you account for the um salary increases, the increases in our insurance costs, the increase in uh transportation uh is roughly 14 million. Um I have, as I said, even with a net decrease of 2.6 six positions. There's um some pieces in there that make a very modest ad of 62 thou just under 63,000 for a recommended increase of 14 million or 6.6%. So that is the state of the education budget. Um I'd ask if you have some questions to hold them and I'll let Mr. Ledwith get through his presentation and then we'll be happy to
024open up to discussion. >> Oh, thank you. Thank you, Paul. And uh good afternoon, everyone. And thank you to our uh partners at WHCI TV to for um televising today's community conversation. Uh, as the mayor alluded to, this is our opportunity um to engage with our residents in a back and forth on what is one of the most important things that our board of education and town council and us as a leadership team both on the schools and the town do on an annual basis and that is a adopt a budget, work on a budget um that allows us to continue to deliver the services that we do to our town. uh very exceptional high level uh services that we provide both on the town side and the school side as uh Paul alluded to
025from uh the cool school perspective. Um, and you can see on the bottom of our slide here, uh, in terms of return on investment, uh, some of the accolades that we've received and we continue to receive year after year. Uh, that makes us an exceptional community. And, and most recently, the US News and World Report um, announced that we were the number 19 community to live in the United States. Uh, number one in Connecticut, number one in the Northeast. uh niche has uh elected us to be the best place to live in Connecticut for the eighth straight year and uh ARP most recently announced that we West Harford was the most li livable community in the state of Connecticut. Um among as I said many things that Paul alluded to in his presentation as well.
026So we are proud of those accomplishments. Um, but that, you know, that's something that we work on with our town council, with our board of education, with our team, and with our residents to ensure that we continue to deliver the high level of services that our community is expecting. Um, and with that, and this is the time of year, and and and it's not something that um we just start working on as as we start approaching budget season. This is something that Paul and I will engage in conversations throughout the year for both sides. It's a process that starts in the fall and continues right up until we present those bud budgets in March. So, um Paul presented his budget two weeks ago. The board of ed will send that budget to myself and then
027I roll that budget into uh our budget presentation to the town council which we did last Tuesday evening. So, and very similar to Paul, we have a few different drivers that are uh impacting our budget this year. Um, we have salaries uh as as Paul alluded to as well and benefits and I and I mentioned specifically healthcare, the Connecticut State Partnerships Plan. So, on the salary side, our salary line item number is at 2.8%. Um, and that is a combination of all of our bargaining units. As Paul had said, uh we negotiate salaries and benefits with we have 22 bargaining units between the town and the schools and we negotiate those salary and benefits every 3 to four years with those groups and those that number that Paul has presented and that I have presented
028have been negotiated with our with our employees and we couldn't amend that number right now. So that number is a pretty firm number in terms of that salary increase. The only way we could impact that number um if we wanted to reduce it would be to reduce uh the staff that are delivering services in town. And Paul talked about healthcare. I want to talk a little bit more about this um because it's one of those things and you know as Paul said we're a peoplebased business. So um and we'll talk about some different ideas that uh in terms of how we deliver services to the town that could save us money in the future. But th this is one area that we've done and I'll talk a little bit about our pension plan as well
029that we've done over the last couple years to save um our residents and our taxpayers. And we joined the partnership plan as Paul said about eight years ago. At that time we saved $3 million combined between the town and the school district when we made that change. So the year we did that we reduced our health care costs by $3 million um by joining the Connecticut State Partnership Plan. And that's a plan that allows uh cities and towns in the state to join the state plan. So there's about a hundred of the 169 cities and towns in the state, about a hundred particip participate in the state partnership plan. So what we do, why we did that was to take advantage of economies of scale and potentially save like we did when we joined that
030uh say $3 million by joining that plan. Over the first few years, we continued to see great experience in that partnership plan and our costs rose very incrementally, very uh I think one year we had an actual reduction. Another year we had like a 1% increase. Last year we had a 9.4% increase and this year uh we had a um a proposed 12 and a half% increase that they've now reduced to 11 and a half%. So haven't been particularly happy over the last two years in terms of that increase in the state partnership plan. Um but we're hopeful that you know by continuing to participate that we will continue to see those economies of scale work in our favor uh as we move forward. But certainly um you know if this becomes something that we're
031going to be concerned about in out years uh like we're seeing the last two years then we'll have to you know potentially pivot away from that state partnership plan in the future. Um overall we've our overall increase over the last eight years has been 5 a.5% um and that includes this year's 11 and a half and last year's nine. Um so uh healthc care trend has been a little above that during that time period. This year I think anyone who's um has insurance in a private sector you're seeing those kinds of increases this year. We're seeing 9 to 10% uh increases in health care costs um this year nationally. So it's certainly having an impact on uh on us as well. So the other two budget drivers on the town side are operating expenses and
032capital financing. So on the operating expense side, our overall increase is $4.8% about $1.4 million. $1.1 million of that 1.4 is attributed to our waste management. So, as folks uh may remember, we we well we had been with Paynees recycling for for many years and then Payes last year right around this time actually uh sold their uh business to All-American Waste. So, we had a contract with Payes that was recognized by All-American Waste. That contract is up on September 30th of this year of 2026. And based on conversations that we've had with All American Waste, uh we can expect uh roughly a 25 to 30% increase in our cost to collect waste and transport it out of town um to have it taken care of uh outside of West Hartford. So we are actually as
033we speak going out to bid. So that's uh what we're expecting now. That's what we had to put in the budget. Uh but we're working with that RFP process. uh between now and hopefully by the end of April, by the time the council adopts the final budget, we will have a better number to work with than that $1.1 million. So, we're working hard to to get that number down uh either working directly with our current vendor or through the RFP process a identifying another vendor that we can work with uh as we move forward. So in capital financing we have um very as we folks we all live here. Uh we have very large infrastructure in town. We have 217 miles of roads, 300 miles of sidewalks. Um acreage and acreage of uh of parks
034and 2.6 million square feet of building space. Uh so very large infrastructure that we maintain and we have a capital improvement um plan a CIP plan that's responsible for helping us fund and maintain that infrastructure. So we spend about we're going to spend about $570 million on that infrastructure over the next 12 years. Um, this year our capital financing went up by about $3 million and that's not on things that we've identified that we need to put into our CIP plan for tomorrow. It's for things that we've already bonded for. So, every year the town issues $15 million um on general obligation bonds and we use those bonds and our AAA rated status to get the lowest interest rate possible to utilize uh the CIP plan for us to help us maintain our infrastructure as
035we move forward. So, and I I mentioned that AAA rated status. That's uh another thing, one of the many things we do exceptionally well here in West Harford that lead to some of those accolades that I talked about earlier. Uh we've been a AAA rated community for uh for as long as I can remember, mayor. I think it goes back 50 60 years now. Um, but it allows, as I said, allows us to uh let borrow money, bond for for our infrastructure at the lowest possible interest rate for both the town and our residents. Our grandlist growth, uh, I know we've talked and you've probably seen a lot of the approve, um, approved developments that are coming up around town. Uh, those will lead to grandless growth as we move forward. Uh last year our
036grand list increased by $60 million. This year it's increasing by $81.5 million which is very strong. Um but it will increase even more next year because all those apartment buildings that we've uh and affordable housing um developments that we've talked about and that the council's voted on over the last couple of years, those are all in the process of being built. Like for example, right over here at the Yukon campus. So once those developments come online, folks are living there, that's where we'll really start to see that grandless growth um over the next year or two. Uh I talked about uh one of those things, a state partnership plan was one example. This is another example of us taking a look at, as I said, we're a peoplebased business. anything we can do to impact
037impact the way um uh the our salaries and benefits uh or our health care um impact our budget. Things that we can do to mitigate that uh we are more than willing to do. And this is an example of something that we did uh back in 2021 in our pension plan uh back uh in the valuation in 20 2020 leading into 21. uh the cost of us delivering our pension benefits um to our employees was had a budget impact of $26 million uh at that point and that it was rising by one and a half $2 million every single year and today that number stands at $10.5 million. We were able to reduce that actuarial annual cost by $15 million by taking advantage of our AAA rated status, issuing pension obligation bonds and using that
038lower interest rate to lower our um um our pension plan requirements on an annual basis. So, and while also increasing our funding status. So, our funding status back in 2021 was 40%, today it stands at above 90% and as I said, our annual cost to our residents and to our budget reduced by $15 million. So, and then all of the things that we've talked about uh in terms of the services, our our high performing schools, the accolades that we receive, those are having a direct impact uh we believe on our um on our values of our homes. As the mayor said, most of our budget is received in taxes from our residents more so than our commercial and best uh commercial uh properties. And um last year when we were delivering the same community conversation
039um presentation, our values last year come and this is coming off the 2022 revaluation that we all went through. We were up our values were up 35% this time last year. Today as we stand here they are up another 10%. It's up 45%. So we are also going through a revaluation next year. Um and that will certainly have a uh an impact on the value of our community overall. So um so I think the VA you know the the services as I said that we provide our school district um really enhance the value of our one of our most important assets as as residents and that are is our home. So overall um we have a 6.6% increase in expenditures 4.8% on the town a little bit less than seven on the schools 16.4% on
040capital. Uh we are uh at this point our uh budget that was presented last week would call for a 2.91 mil increase or 6 and a half% and there would be no increase in our motor vehicle mill rate of 32.46 that's statutoily driven. Um but just to quickly close out this presentation then turn it over to our residents here. Um this is really about hearing from from our residents. Um the the board of education as the uh as our chairperson said will the board will adopt on March 31st and then the town council will adopt in late April. Um but we are going to use these conversations as well as our public hearing process to hear from our residents and look for ways that we can continue to mitigate the impact that this increase would
041have on our residents. So thank you. Merritt, do you want to say a few things before we turn it over to everyone? So um as we you know this budget the number will come down. I don't know how much I I it won't be as much as we want for sure. Um but we have to really talk about and be honest about what those decisions of decreasing the budget is. If we left the budget uh the same, what does that mean for our community? Um and and how does it work with our our um labor contracts? we actually are required to reduce part-time workers first before we go to full paid workers. So, um it it there's a a very big impact on uh some of the facilities that we, you know, might might use
042most. For instance, the senior center um and there's a you know there's there is um spec we have to provide specific numbers. It's nice to say let's reduce it by 10% across the board. Well, some areas we can and some areas we can't do that. Uh and then what does that mean? Um is that you know I mean how many police officers is that and how many public works workers is that and how does that impact uh you know the services that we provide ju on the town side. I just do want to be uh you know public public works I'm sorry public safety is the primary driver between the you know we don't have a pie up but between those two pieces it's uh well well public what public safety and public works make
043up uh what is it 80% >> 4% of our of the town budget >> okay well whatever anyway all right But um but anyway, we want to get to you. So, we'll start with you. >> The first question I have interrupt >> the superintendent said the budget is superintendent the education is 60%. >> We we want to make sure that your question or are heard on the WHCI if that's okay. So, you have to speak into those. >> Oh, is that Oh, that mic's good. Okay. Okay. Sorry. We have >> education is 60%. Correct. >> 60% of the >> total budget >> total town budget. >> So what is the >> the police debt >> of the 100% then >> 9.4.2 for the schools 9.4 for public safety that's police and fires. >> Could you
044hear 4.1? Yeah. questions and answer. >> Yep. >> Let me go here and then I'll go. >> Uh I I understand budgets and I but the mill rate is based on how much tax we we the property we have in town. Are there a lot of tax abatements for these new properties going in or are they all being taxed fully? >> It's a good >> question. So, uh do you I don't you want to Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, so all of the um, so we have two affordable housing developments that were approved that are part of an agreement that we have with the West Harford Housing Authority. So there's one right here on North Main Street, 1244 North Main, and then another one on Farmington Avenue, the old West Harford in um, which has
045been converted to the Camelot. And then um but those we do receive uh taxes but they're at a lower rate because it's affordable housing. Um so for Yukon for example, which is a very large development that was approved this past year, there are no tax abatements on the Yukon property. Um there's uh some development in the center. There's a condominium complex and a new apartment building. No tax no tax abatement there. 950 Troutbrook which is the old uh science center which is going to be one West Harford. No tax abatements there. So generally uh across the board uh you know 90 plus% of the uh approvals have not involved any kind of tax abatement. >> So our increase >> it will significantly. So, next year's Miller rate, we will be here in this room hopefully
046again. Um, talking about a miller rate that's down in the 30s. Yeah. From where it is today. >> Can we drop the motor vehicle or do we have to keep it at 32? >> We have to Well, for what? Yes, you you we do have the ability to to change that, but we couldn't >> make our budget work by decreasing it. Yeah. So it's good to hear that the um uh larger apartments don't have abatement. However, how much is the budget affected by the increase of num of inhabitants of people who are going to live there? The increase of car traffic. Our traffic is not set up for that many more people. What are you going to do about that? And how would that affect the budget? >> So question. So th all of those
047uh decisions or um we whenever the council approves a a development traffic there's a a requirement that a traffic study is presented to the council prior to signing off on any kind of uh development. So those are all factored while we're making those decisions. Um we don't believe that the increase in the number of folks that'll be living in these uh developments will impact our services um directly uh at least initially. That's certainly something that we can evaluate as they come online. They're they're still they're in the process of being built. So we haven't uh we do have a couple that are up and running and haven't seen an impact um both on the town side or on the school side as well. Um so but that's you know that is something that we'll continue
048to monitor and as they do come online and we're experiencing that um impact on our services that would be something certainly we would have a conversation with with our council. >> Thank you. And I'm just that's a really good question and we do talk about sometimes developers will actually pay for a public improvement to a light to a a road to make sure that it flows better uh after to a uh even to um some other infrastructure. So so we do that. Um I will say that West Hartford has had higher population. Um I know when I was growing up here we had about 70,000 people in West Hartford. We're at 64,000 now. Uh so we we've you know we're with all the apartments we have what,00 apartments coming online and that's the so we
049expect that we'll see a few thousand more people. Uh but it's we're not building homes where there's going to be you know lots of you know big families and it's it it is different. Yeah. >> So, um, and that that's an excellent point and again, it's something that we'll continue to monitor and, you know, there's a couple things I'll I'll mention with that. So, we do have a vision zero action plan, which I hope folks are aware of now. So, we're spending a lot of effort in terms of keeping our streets safer and and as we grow, we'll continue to do that as well. Uh, so so with that addition of of cars in our community, we will want to make sure that we maintain a safe environment when folks are moving through town. Some
050of the projects that we've talked about are, you know, in the center like one 950 Trout Brook, which is one West Hartford. We're hoping that and one of the uh reasons a developer wanted to um to make a uh investment in West Hartford was because of the access to the center. So that particular building will have access to grocery stores, to the movie theaters, to restaurants, to our library. So uh and we have two other developments right around the center as well. So we're hoping people will take advantage of walking places. Um, we have, uh, the new development right here at the Yukon property, which is, uh, part of our Troutbrook Trail, which is a very, uh, popular uh, and becoming more popular uh, park here in town, uh, all winter long, uh, as cold
051as it was this winter, that that trail was being as accessed every single day by bikers and pedestrians. And we're hoping again that with the new development, people will take that opportunity to walk to the center or walk here to Bishop's Corner, not necessarily get in and out of their car every single day and and drive on our streets. But we'll we'll we'll continue to monitor that. We're it's we're very hopeful that that will happen. It's it's why um you know why these developers wanted to invest in our town. >> They do. Yep. They're also they're both all on public transportation lines as well. So >> underused, but it's also you have to wait an hour. >> Yeah. Yeah. Good points. We'll we'll continue to monitor. And >> the other question I have is um
052does uh West Hartford still offer double pensions for people? So we do not >> work in one capacity until they make their pension, work in another capacity and make another pension. Is that still occurring? >> That is not occurring here in town. It never it never has. I've been working here for 25 years and I'm not aware of anyone collecting two pensions from some people do come here from other communities >> who collect a pension from another community then can come here and and earn enough service to earn a pension here. But we all as for and I I sit on the pension board uh and the mayors in our pension board meetings every we had one this morning as a matter of fact. So I'm not aware of anyone who's receiving two pensions from
053the town of West Harford. So and the teachers participate in the state teachers part uh retirement system. So they're not part of our pension plan. >> Okay. And do police officers receive a pension over their overtime? >> Great question. So we have uh several tiers of benefits that are uh that we've now negotiated with all of our uh employees. All of our bargaining units that the police and fire are our two larger ones as folks know. So we have eliminated overtime as a function of your of a police officer's pension or a firefighter's pension uh for folks that have been hired after certain years. So right now over half of our police department and half of our fire department are covered under that new plan that does not factor overtime into their pensions. >> Hi,
054thank you for being here today and allowing us to ask important questions that affect us living in town. Um, I was relieved to hear that hopefully next year when we gather the mill rate will be in the 30s because since I've lived here since 1997, I've seen it go up and we were always told the parking garages will bring it down. This will bring it down. Another thing will bring it down. I just don't see it coming down. I also am very concerned about seniors on a fixed income and what the town can do to keep taxes for them. For instance, I know the STAR program, you all can't vote on that. I was in touch with Larsson's office and they're looking into it, but I think there should be a benefit for seniors. the
055STAR program. You're 65. You live in town. You own your own house. You no longer have children in the school system. You pay school tax, but you pay it at a reduced rate. And I really think that's something that you that have contact with Congress, Senate, etc. should really discuss to help that population. >> We do and we will. Yeah. our I mean what makes West Harford what it is is what what we represent to every single one of our residents and we want you know we have a lot of families here we have younger families and we have folks who are we have our senior population as well we want to keep everyone here in town as long as they want to be here that's what makes West Harford unique and special and something
056we were our council and our board of education will always be focused on as well so um and we do have some programs available to seniors locally. Um, happy to put anyone in touch with our uh, assessment offices. >> Correct. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. >> This a question for you, Paul. Um, what is the B? We've been talking about this a little bit. The student population is it increasing, decreasing? What are you guys planning? >> So, the student population has actually um shown some decrease over the last five years. When you look historically, uh we're projected to be just over 9,000 students for next year. Uh if you go back five years or so, that's actually down from 10,000. Um the elementary, uh we're looking at stable enrollment for the coming year. Uh
057so where we're seeing the reduction coming up, middle school will actually be up a fair number of students and then our high schools uh we're looking that they will likely be down somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 students from the adopted budget. I believe in the long term >> long-term and thanks. Yeah, I was going to squeeze that in. So right now um we are projecting um you know some potential increase but not dramatic increase with all of the different housing units that are coming online. We're looking at that closely. Uh my director of finance just had a meeting with counterparts on the town side and the planner's office. They look at things like the uh the number of bedrooms. um there's a lot of one or two bedrooms and they look at the price
058point for that to have to try to have an understanding of uh whether or not that's bringing in a lot of families. And I think as the mayor kind of pointed out, if there were if there were a larger turnover in the housing market, that's really where we see the impact on the school side. Um but we have two projections. We're actually going to be presenting our enrollment projection report um I think tomorrow evening at the upcoming board meeting. And we always run um a conservative and a more perhaps aggressive type of enrollment projection, but right now based on what we're being told, we think that the impact will be more conservative. Other questions? >> Any other questions? >> One in the back. >> Sorry. Hi, thank you. Um, so I just want to thank
059everybody for your time and your service to the community. I'm really grateful for it. I'm a parent of an elementary school age child and so this might be a pretty narrow question, but I and I moved here from New York and we were looking at suburbs between New York and Chicago and came here for the value and all the wonderful things that we're receiving. So, thank you. Um, I'm particularly curious about the child nutrition program and the investment around child nutrition. I understand almost a third of the students in our district are free and reduced. I also understand that there's, you know, sort of various issues with labor and procurement and things like that. And it just wondering if you can speak more about the role of the child nutrition program in the budget, different
060federal challenges that we're facing around funding it, and if there are any opportunities to support um improvements in the options available to our children. >> Great question. >> It is. I understand. >> Um thank you. So there is a role um in terms of the overall budget for the percentage of students that uh percentage of families that qualify for free and reduced lunch. Um and that has to do with both ECS funding and some other and some other things. So but that said our nutrition budget itself lives outside of our board of education general fund budget. So so there's not a dramatic um direct impact to to to this percent. Um there are things there are state level grants and there's federal level funding. What I can say is for certain you know the the
061menus that we provide and the options that are provided do meet all of the statutory federal guidance um necessary. Um but we we have a growing interest in town. We have had uh relative to you know what are some other opportunities? Let's talk about farm to school and things of this nature. And I know there's uh there's been a lot of um a lot of uh interest and motivation around it. Um so in my nutrition uh department, the manager has just created not a new position, an additional duty took took someone and and we worked it out. We said we can fund this through their budget without any impact to the general budget to uh to be able to give them a stipen to to kind of be uh keyed in on uh the whole
062farm-to-school type movement. And I know there's been at least one meeting with that team um and a group of parents. I believe the meeting may have already happened um but I haven't gotten the full kind of download. and they were kind of on a listening tour for the moment so that they can develop. We have taken advantage of some of the state grants that are available um in the past and we do have a couple of individual things um happening in pockets but we're we're equally interested to know what are the different pieces that we might you know make more systematic in the district. Um so great great question. I'd be happy to you know follow up with more if you have more specific questions. I I might have to research to get you answers,
063but I can get you those answers. >> Other questions are on 15 minutes and if West Hartford is on that path, >> 15 minutes city. Yes, I'm sure um if you're you know in in the city, you know what a 15-minute city is where vehicles are more restricted and walking and bicycling is promoted and apartments versus houses, individual houses. That's, you know, um that's what a 15-minute city is. >> Okay. And it seems like a lot of uh the infrastructure that's happening here is sort of headed in that direction with the bicycle paths uh which you know the winters are bad. People aren't going to give up their vehicles for bicycle paths. So to me um that's what I'm seeing is a 15minute city development. So that's I I we could do some research on
064the specifics of the 15minute city, but listening to your just general um overview of it. I would say a lot of what we're doing today is to promote um more accessible access townwide. So that's folks, we I mentioned our 217 miles of streets. So we redo 10 miles of those streets every single year as part of our capital improvement program. And with that, we are we're expanding our bicycle network with that. So, we are becoming, you know, much more accessible community from a bicycle standpoint. Um, and we will do the same thing. And we want obviously our pedestrians to take full advant advantage of that access as well. So, um, we will have we are adding our first protected bike lane, uh, in West Harford this coming up year. We're redoing New Park Avenue. We
065have a road diet similar to what we did on North Main Street a couple years ago where we're going from four lanes to two lanes with the center left-hand lane with a protected cycle track on the um the west side of New Park Avenue that will allow folks uh protected access on a bicycle uh along that you know as folks as anyone who's been down and in that part of town. It can be a very busy part of town. Um, so the the the road diet will slow people down while also adding that bicycle um feature for folks as well. So um so we'll continue to look at that townwide. Like I said, anytime we're redoing a street, we're we're adding a bike lane to that process. >> I'm not sure um in this type
066of uh weather that a bike lane is all that important. and people have families. They can't exactly transport their families on bike lanes. So, I'm thinking that bike lanes are not really going to be used that much, especially during the winter. Who's going to use a bike lane? >> Yeah, you'd be surprised how many phone calls I got this winter. It's been the worst winter we've had in um you know, obviously five, six, seven years. Um, but probably uh I heard a lot of complaints about we we had a lot of changes like I mentioned in our bicycle infrastructure townwide. And as part of our vision zero efforts, we've added a lot of uh curb extensions to our corners so folks can get safely across the street in a shorter amount of time and and
067distance. Uh we have pedestrian refuge islands uh townwide as well. So, with all of that infrastructure change that we've added to our system this year, there were a lot of complaints because of the large amounts of snow that we weren't able to get to those infrastructures to clean it out as quickly as as we could. Our focus was on maintaining our streets and then public works would get out there, you know, within two or three days of a snowstorm. But you'd be surprised how many folks did complain about uh the fact that um that access was somewhat limited because of the snowstorms. Uh and I on the other hand received a lot of compliments uh throughout the winter as well for our maintenance of Troutbrook Trail. Trout Brook Trail became part of our street infrastructure
068from a cleaning standpoint. And so our public public works team was out there maintaining that trail all winter long right after the storm and and received a lot of compliments uh at maintaining that access for our um for our residents. >> I just want to add that our streets, you know, as we had said, we have closer to 20 220 miles of streets. Our public works department worked so hard and so well on cleaning streets for all users. I know mainly cars, our roads, uh making sure that they were passable and safe and that is a very um I got I I received many calls from people from other towns saying when I got to West Hartford I saw a difference. It was safer. It was the roads were cleaner. Uh and it was different
069than being in Hartford, Newington, and Bloomfield. and the one those are some of the specific uh feedback that I did receive from residents that either work there or live here whatever um and so you know and and I'm sure you know every road can be different at times and we have we have had feedback as well but um but there is a real commitment to make our streets safe and that is an investment in our public works department that we don't take lightly and we know um it it makes our community safer questions Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. >> Um, this is just a quick question since you were talking about Trud Trail, which by the way I love. Um, when is that section by Yukon going to be resurfaced because it's uh dangerous for us
070on bicycles? >> So, the developer, we don't own the property. So as but as part of this approval process, our town council uh ensured that the developer would pay for the extension from asylum through the campus heading north. So that will be done. Um we have to we we're in the process of redoing um the uh some of the infrastructure um from a water storm water management perspective. So I'm not sure it'll be done this year. I'll I'll find out and and I'll get your um name afterwards and I'll I'll shoot you an email. So, we're we want to do it as quickly as we possibly can, but we do have to do uh working with the state now to um to do a couple of changes to our storm water system as it moves
071through that campus. So, we're also working with University of St. Joe's to provide access from from the campus to Troutbrook Trail as well. So, we're working on a a pathway coming from inside the campus through the campus out onto asylum and to the corner. And uh President uh Free was very um very excited about that potential of adding USJ to um to the Troutbrook Trail System and providing our students with access to that trail as well. >> Yeah. And unlike most of my friends, I really do like the Rotary on KP. It has significantly improved the traffic there because you don't have to stop if the of course if the rotary is empty so you can always go. Um I think it's a great idea. I I would love to see it in many more
072places because I think a rotary is just a better um traffic structure. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. And it's uh it might be the most famous uh roundabout in the country. Uh we got a lot of lot of news on that roundabout when we put it in. It seems some of us weren't quite sure how to navigate the the roundabout, but to your point, it has reduced. So we've monitored speed along that corridor and our speed reduced from an average of 42 miles an hour to 29 miles an hour on that corridor of of King Phillips. So it's successful and we're looking to do that as part of our Vision Zero efforts. Uh adding a couple more around town. I think we're all used to it now based on our experience on this particular
073one. So, we're ready. Thank you. >> Um I probably have a question for you or the people in the board of education town council. As a taxpayer, I'm I think the increase of 6.5% is more than the taxpayers can afford and I'd like to know if there's any possibilities that you can cut that down. >> Thank you. It's it's 6.6. 6% as it stands right now. Uh and we are going to look at ways we can cut that down. And again I we we uh we can look at a variety of things but um we will it will be a a joint uh discussion. Obviously the board is of the lion's share of the budget at 58%. Uh and so uh there would need we on the town side we can cut some and we
074have revenue actually that we are hoping to be able to project and use. Um but uh it's it's a high budget this year and so uh and I'm we're all feeling we all pay taxes and we're all really struggling uh with this property tax. I will say on my way here, I was on the phone with uh my our state representative, one of our state representatives talking about the fact that uh this property tax structure is ownorous on our population and it is ownorous on on all whole people. I have a 97y old mother. I am 66. I have a 38 year old 37 year old son and gr two grandchildren. And I've seen the difficulty in buying a house, how hard it is and how expensive it is, uh, for new families to come
075in and pay for the new h these elevated house prices and what their tax bills are. Um, and I I have from my own perspective and my mom being on on a fixed income, I I see it. I feel it. Um, and it's it's it's broken and we need other sources of revenue uh to be able to be a successful community. I mean, we've we feel as though and we've tried and it's been recognized that we are doing the things that we should as a community do. We are investing in affordable housing and and as you heard that is the one area that has a tax break uh affordable housing um because the finances can't work without some support from the community. Um and we we we are investing in safer streets and we're investing
076in a highly diverse education so that all of our students can succeed. Uh, and we are, um, across the board, we are a community that people when they move here, and I just went to two two new CEOs that moved into the region, uh, both chose West Harford to live because of the quality of life of this community. Uh, and that does not weigh lightly on me. There are a lot of wonderful places to live. So um we I I did speak with our we have been asking for our education cost sharing grant to be adjusted for inflation has not been adjusted in 10 years 12 okay so 13 years 13 years has not been adjusted do you think teacher salaries have gone up since then do you think costs of heating the buildings have
077gone up since then of course they have and so we keep falling behind um the same thing with our uh our e our special education costs have risen as Paul said we're we are now reimbured at 67% by the state, not 80% the way we used to be reimbursed. And so again, costs continue to rise. On the town side, the same thing with our public safety, public works, it's very hard to find people. It's really hard to find, especially the cream of the crop. You have to pay them. And so, uh, salaries go up because that's what they, you know, contractual obligations. And if we don't raise our contractual obligations, our public, our police, our fire are going to go to another community that will. And so, uh, you know, we have all these things.
078So, we had asked for some other revenue streams. And we, I just was speaking with our, um, our state rep about a restaurant tax about 5 years ago. uh Connecticut Conference of Municipalities got together and they have been talking about this this over reliance on property taxes in Connecticut and they said well at least a community that has restaurants provides infrastructure they provide public safety they provide parking they provide public works uh you know investment. So we're going to impose a 1% tax and it's going to go back to the municipalities where that originated. Well that was great idea. Um but it got swept into the state budget. The municipalities got nothing and the state over these last 5 years has $500 million sitting in their rainy day fund and we have received nothing. And
079so that's been a really frustrating. So I said, can we go back last year? I had a press conference on it. I I worked with our senator. I've worked with the Connecticut Restaurant Association. Now it's projected to go into the tourism budget. It was supposed to be then split between tourism and then the municipalities and now it's all going to tourism. So again a frustrating a frustrating opportunity. Um we have we do have uh some unique opportunities that the state created. Um we have the opio we participate in the opioid settlement. So we have a little fund some funds coming from that. We have three cannabis locations. We are we have the state provided 3% sales tax uh restricted use of what we can do with that funding. that uh and they have allowed as
080part of um red light um red light speed and potentially um school bus cameras violations to go in a with fixed pricing determined by the state can go to the municipalities for restricted use to for road safety. Still no general revenue that offsets the reliance on property taxes. we have to continue to increase and chip away at services all at the same time. Um and so we will get this budget down. I don't know how much. I don't know whether it will be a smidge or something a little bit bigger. Um I do know that we will we are in the worst cycle of the revaluation. We're at the last year before revaluation where the prices where the uh val the values of homes and across the board go up and we will hit the
081lowest part probably of the next 5year cycle of our mill rate. So um it you know the way the state mandated revaluation works every 5 years. It used to be 10 years which was even u more dramatic. Um but uh I so I what I would ask you to do is to talk to state the state reps and say look we when we talk about affordable housing when we talk about business cost of business property taxes is an important part of that and and all of us when I when we go to statewide meetings we're all struggling with this. Um I I don't know what the common uh numbers are but I Paul you had said it was around 7% for education. Um and >> no no but the increases you're seeing now in other
082districts >> six to seven% in this general area. >> Yeah you know and greater Hartford is a little bit different because our property values aren't high as high as Fairfell County. So the mill rates in Fairfield County are lower, but but the tax burdens I mean the cost of living is is very expensive too there. But >> I I understand the taxes have to go up. It's just that it's double what inflation is. >> I know. >> I mean you understand that. That's all I'm asking. I mean like >> I'm not trying to be nosy, but if you the the six of you up there, I'm sure you didn't get raises of six%. >> Nope. >> So >> you but but you that's my point. I mean, I understand it's like if we can get
083it down a little bit. But but see, >> that's what we will try. >> If we get a de if the state decrease, doesn't use property tax, we're going to have to pay tax, it's going to have to get paid somehow. >> It's not going to be free. So, if the state says, "Okay, the state's going to you can lower your property tax by 50%." They're gonna go up on the state income tax or the sales tax. We're still gonna get taxed. It's just going to be taxed a different way. I would I would rather have had that 500 million sitting in the state surplus. I would rather have had that come to the municipalities and pay for some of our con road construction improvements that we were doing to West Harford Center. I we
084would have used it that way. So it's sitting now in a rainy day fund which is really good for the state bond rating but that wasn't the agreement. So I I I hear you that it is you know money is fungeible. It's going to come from one place or another. Um but again when when Massachusetts MU moved to they you know we Connecticut used to be kind of a little below Massachusetts and property taxes. Massachusetts has gone below with Connecticut comparatively their pro their values have gone up a lot but their comparatively their tax burden has dropped a bit. And why is that? because they had proposition two and a half and what that did was limit the number the property taxes. So Connecticut tried to do that but what Massachusetts did while they were
085doing that they increased funding for education. They increased funding for road construction. They did some of the things that the that the state needed to do that they knew were drivers in budgets and they could maybe control it a little bit. And maybe um when you were negotiating contracts, there was an expectation that that's where you would be, you know, that you had this sort of guideline of where you needed to be. Um in Connecticut has said that they're putting a cap of 2 and a half%. So we don't share in a municipal revenue sharing grant, but they have an increas our our costs continue to go up, but no more additional money's coming in. So it's so I I'm just saying your voice is important here, but it's also important for to talk about
086the state and whether it is it's sales tax. It it might impact you, but it might also be impacting um people that come and visit Connecticut as well. That helps Sharon. Um I am a big toll person. I don't know why people using our roads don't pay to use our roads. I don't that doesn't make sense to me. Everywhere we go around the world has tolls. It's a user fee. You use the roads, you pay the fee. >> I don't know why that is so challenging, but I digress. >> Um, you said that we our healthc care in West Harford is part of the state partnership plan and I guess the last two years was I don't know if the figures are correct 9% 10%. Um, what are we doing to try to drive health
087care down? Are we giving incentives to the the people this the town workers like if you get physicals every year, you know, and stay up to date? >> Are we negotiating with um better contracts fories and stuff? Can you tell us on that? >> So, the reason one of the reasons we went to the state >> partnership plan was that very fact that you just mentioned. So within the plan there are requirements that every individual um both the participant and family members all have to get physicals, colonoscopies, mammogs. There's a whole host of things, eye exams, dental exams, you name it that are part of the plan and that's how they were able to maintain. That's why we were able to save that $3 million when we joined it. So, but what's been happening is
088medical utilization in pharmacy specifically has increased dramatically over the last 24 months and that's having an adverse effect on the partnership plan right now. So, we we have those belts and suspenders built into the plan to help us stay healthier. Um, but we're seeing some other things uh that need to be addressed at if we were to stay in the plan, we would want the state because we're part of that plan that they're part of. So if they were to come in and the comproller would say, "All right, we're doing this on the pharmacy side to lower our pharmacy spend," that would have an impact on the benefits for our our our employees, and we'd have that built-in savings as being part of the plan. So, we'll continue to to work with the state. Um,
089and if those types of things aren't on the horizon of potentially happening, then we'll we'll Paul and I will have to to sit down and work with our finance teams to to look at a change uh away from the state partnership plan in the future, >> which needs to be negotiated with our >> and that so it all it is all negotiable with our unions. Um, so all 22 bargaining units have that built in. So we'd have to negotiate that change with our unions. uh either one of you uh we're I want I understand I want to understand the math on the reassessment of the homes and the reval and mill rate. Obviously if you increase the value of the homes the mill rate is going to go down but we're still going to pay
090the same tax because I'm still paying a percentage of how much I have. So if my house goes up 75% and the mill rate goes down 25 I'm still going to pay more. So, >> that's a good point. So, your budget, the number is what it is. The our budget is, and I can pull it up right here. >> It's $390 million between the town and the schools. So, that number won't change. >> Um, the value of property will change. That'll increase quite significantly. So >> yeah, >> it hits different people in different ways, right? So a larger home might go up at a lesser rate than a lower moderate home might go up, right? And we've seen sort of a shift in that sort of mid home rate. there's a real need for those
091homes and those prices have gone up a um comparatively I call it the fishbowl. So you have a a long you know of a tank an aquarium of water like this and you're just tipping it and some homes might be going up more than other homes. So one side of the tank's going to be higher. The water's the same. The amount of water is the same. It might shift but that mill rate will come down. But the projects that we are adding have real grand list growth that will add to the grand list your homes. That's why the mill rate the mill rate is misleading because it depends on the value of your home. You go to a mill rate in Greenwich, you know, and you it's a lot less money, but you can't buy
092a home for under $5 million, right? So, you know, it depends on on what that, you know, the value the value is, right? So, so real grandless growth is is um people adding onto their homes, people, you know, adding an addition or, you know, building a new building um redoing, you know, reuse of something that was um you know, had deteriorated. We are doing those things, too. So, we're doing all of that, but the home values outside >> but better I mean also and there have been times where home values have gone down >> right and so and and mill rates might and mill rates might need to come up but you know so it's this and there was a time sorry to there was a time when our mill rate in west Harford was
09370 mills so just there is history could be worse >> in the 60s and 70s >> but >> I think when you kept on saying residential reval are commercial >> commercial commercial >> we do it all at once so commercial a $10 million property is going to go up as well >> correct >> okay >> so >> right but we're not going to be residential is not going to be taking the whole burden on it so I'm saying >> it takes up a majority of our burden because we are >> right there was comparative resial homes on a lot more. >> Correct. >> Yeah. >> Residential more in demand, right? People want homes. So, it's they're going to go up. Look at the homes in town. Obviously, it's going up. >> But the multifamily residential
094projects that are coming online like Yukon for example alone is $200 million in grandless growth just for that project if combined between the two campuses. So, the one on uh Troutbrook is $70 million. So, th that is where we're next year. We do have the reval, which is complicating because your home is going to go up probably by 50% by next year when we're doing the reval. But, we're going to have this grandless growth that we will balance with our council to ensure that our taxpayers are now starting to see that positive impact of that growth. So it'll just be complicated because we have the rebal piece here, but we also have the grandless growth associated with our development that we're that's part of that equation, but we will use that to mitigate the impact
095on the taxpayer. So yeah, the mill rate will drop into the 30s, but your value is going up. So you're paying what you're paying, but we will use this grandless growth over here on the development to lower that impact for our residents. And you said 200 million for the uh Yukon >> all in >> with with commercial and everything else over there. >> Yeah, >> because the the grocery store and all that stuff's going to go in. Okay. Yeah, >> I can ask questions. >> Okay. Since we're going to be adding 200 million for Yukon, when will that go in? So, if you've driven by lately, the four apartment buildings on the parking lot side are literally coming out of the ground as we speak. So, they have the elevator shafts up in that uh
096one building. Um this time next year, we're hoping that at least one of those buildings will be up and running and and rented uh while the remainder so they're doing this in stages, but uh for them, we're working very closely with the developer every single day right now. Time is money for them. um their costs have been increased by the all of our costs, right? When we go shopping, what whatever we're buying, it's costing more. They're seeing it on the construction side. So, they're very eager to get this done as quickly as possible. So, I'm hoping next year we'll see even more of our growth attributable to that particular campus. How about the remediation? >> So on the on the campus side, the main campus side, um Yukon University of Connecticut left us with a
097little bit of a environmental hazard in those buildings. Um the mayor was very influential in working with our state to um to receive a $6 million brownfield grant. So we were the first grant in the state uh at the $6 million level. So we'll use that grant to mitigate the environmental impact that that has. So, we are working with the developer right now bring those buildings down. Hopefully, you'll see that in the coming weeks. Um, and then they they they have a couple of um properties that have been leased out. So, they need to get going on that side as well to to you know, talk about the supermarket that'll be on the north end of the campus. That's that'll be work. They'll be working on that very soon. >> When does When does the
098uh property hit the grand list? When the CO is signed. >> So the total it it's it hits us in phases. >> I understand. But yeah. >> So once people are living there and we the rents are coming into the developer, that's where we get our biggest impact grandless wise. Yeah. Okay. >> So, I assume that once that 200 million hits, it's possible that we won't be seeing big increases. Is that correct? >> Correct. >> Yeah. Like this year, for example, we had $80 million. Um, and that's with really nothing none of the development that we've approved has hit that. That's just a, you know, it's a good number. It's a strong number for Connecticut. Um, >> can't Yeah. Yeah, but that was affordable. So, um, so once they once we start to see the
099like like I said, next year when we're standing here, uh, that $80 million will be a much higher number. Um, two years from now, it'll even it'll be double that. So, we're looking at significant grandless growth over the next 24 months. >> So, basically, we might have to bite the bullet as taxpayers for this year. Then the years going forward, the increase may not be as large. >> Correct. Yeah, hopefully hopefully soon. >> Well, thank you for uh for coming this afternoon and certainly if you have any other questions, I'll grab your number. um to to talk about the trail when that'll be done. But if you have any questions between now and budget adoption can reach out to uh any of us and we'll be happy to >> and we hi everybody. I just
100wanted to add that all of the budget information uh for the West Hartford public schools is on the whps.org website. All for the town council is on westartford.gov. So you can literally look at every single line item in the budget and um so it's all very transparent and we'll be having Yep, there's the binder. >> Uh and we'll be having lots of committee meetings and as the mayor indicated more community forums and public hearings to hear from you. And if you want to be part of the official record uh for the budget, um there are two official budget hearings. Uh March 30th afternoon, 2:00, I think. We haven't said it yet. >> Thursday, we have one. >> No, we don't because that was not noticed. >> No, no, we're still having it. >> We are.
101adding a third. >> Oh, >> yeah. So, we'll have >> No, that was a special council meeting to set the public hearing because we didn't notice it. >> Thursday at 2 2 p.m. in the town hall council chambers, we will have a public hearing at 2 o'clock and then oh, sorry, 2 o'clock on Thursday the 19th and um >> Tuesday, >> thank you. Tuesday the 24th uh will be our evening public hearing and then on the 19th at the public hearing we'll have a special council meeting following that public hearing we where we will add a third public hearing. Um I don't have the date off the top of my head but March 30th. Okay. Thank you. Wednesday the 25th, the board of education will hold a workshop at um 700 p.m. in the council
102chambers. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Thank you so much everybody.