[CTartist]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

Also, Trumbull's taxes have always been high. It has zero to do with the first selectman/mayors of these communities. That comment gave me a good laugh, though.

BTW, Trumbull's mill rate has not always been high. When I moved here the mill rate was around 25.

http://www.trumbull-ct.gov/filestora..._June_2015.pdf

[RunD1987]

25 is pretty cheap mill rate ha

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by CTartist

You are giving me a good laugh and you must be a Republican (no offense) not to understand how well Stamford has been run. BTW, do you think the grand list just "poof" came to be without proper management of the city?

Household income
Trumbull = $108,591
Stamford = $72,706

Trumbull......17 minority in the town
Stamford......50 minority in the town

Which town/city is richer with more resources at hand? The people running Stamford have done a tremendous job over the last 25 years despite the "white flight". When I grew up in Stamford it was only 15 minority. Everyone has done a terrific job of running Stamford especially Mayor Malloy who was running the town through all the white flight.

The management and financial health of a city/town has EVERYTHING to do with the politicians running that municipality.

Case in point is Bridgeport. Danbury and Bridgeport are about the same distance away from NYC and Bridgeport has the railroad and the sound with beaches in it's favor. Danbury is a well run city with a mill rate of 28.26 and corrupt Bridgeport with 42.198.

Sorry to go off topic but I can't Stamford to see Governor Malloy's excellent record in Stamford unfairly disparaged and must defend it since I am from Stamford.

First of all, I'm an independent who's increasingly tired of liberal rhetoric, but am not a fan of the evangelical republican agenda either.

Anyway, Stamford has a total revenue of over half a billion dollars. Trumbull has just over 100 million. Stamford has a median housing price of over half a million dollars, while Trumbull's is in the high 300's - and keep in mind, Stamford's would be dragged down by the large amount of townhouses/condos in the town, while Trumbull has mostly single family dwellings. If you take into account only single family homes, Stamford's would be much higher, leading to a much higher property tax bill, going directly to the city.

Additionally, if you look at income distribution in both Trumbull and Stamford, you'll see there is a higher amount of high income people in Stamford than Trumbull. Stamford has low income that Trumbull doesn't have, which brings down Stamford's overall average. That being said, the affluent areas of Trumbull can't even be compared to the affluence in many areas of Stamford.

As for the mill rate, in 2004, Trumbull's mill rate was 30.48 mills. It went down to 25 mills after the reevaluation in 2010, but a few months later, jumped back to 31 mills. So yes, Trumbull has always had a higher tax rate than any of the surrounding towns. If it was "low" when you moved to town, it was probably the year of the reval, which means the actual rate appears low, but the price of your home is higher so essentially, your taxes will remain the same (or rise). Herbst has only been there for 7 years - if you look at the mill rate history in comparison to surrounding towns, taxes have been high in Trumbull well prior to him taking office.

As for Malloy, he was in the right place at the right time. He capitalized on 9/11, when companies were looking for a "safe haven" after the terrorist attack. Companies were also attracted to Stamford because Wall St executives already lived in the Greenwich/Stamford area, so a huge amount of financial firms relocated to the immediate area. At that time, Stamford also had access to many grants which also put Malloy in a good spot. I'm not saying he deserves zero credit, but it was a "right place, right time" sort of thing. He took advantage of an opportunity that was knocking on his door. Nothing more or less.

[wtby4000]

Did state employees intentionally flood the Stamford DSS?

Flood won

[MrGompers]

Originally Posted by wtby4000

Did state employees intentionally flood the Stamford DSS?

Flood won

I Don't think anyone would be that stupid. If anything it was one of those automatically activated by motion faucets that failed to turn off. A number of offices I've worked in have had the same issue with these types of faucets.

[MrGompers]

Originally Posted by CTartist

BTW, Trumbull's mill rate has not always been high. When I moved here the mill rate was around 25.

http://www.trumbull-ct.gov/filestora..._June_2015.pdf

Don't be fooled by mill rates. They mean nothing and are basically for show.

Towns operate on a budget and they know how much money they need in a budget each year. They will adjust mill rates up/down in conjunction with property valuations (aka grand list) to meet they're number.

It can be illustrated with a simple formula

X + Y = Z whereas we know 2 of the variables and only need to solve for the third.

This is also a big reason why towns/cities want to attract new business/housing because that will add to the valuation (grand list) and in some cases can account for the percentage rise in the towns budget from year to year. IF you read a town report many of them make reference to this with statements like "the towns grand list increased by 3% this year"

As we all know however, land is limited so some towns/cities can no longer increase there budgets (via an increased grand list) in this way. They also can not annex nearby land since there are no unincorporated areas in CT. (i.e all land is already claimed and taxed, unless specially declared tax exempt such as Govt buildings/land)

This goes way over the average person head though.

[Mike 75]

Originally Posted by MrGompers

Don't be fooled by mill rates. They mean nothing and are basically for show.

Towns operate on a budget and they know how much money they need in a budget each year. They will adjust mill rates up/down in conjunction with property valuations (aka grand list) to meet they're number.

It can be illustrated with a simple formula

X + Y = Z whereas we know 2 of the variables and only need to solve for the third.

This is also a big reason why towns/cities want to attract new business/housing because that will add to the valuation (grand list) and in some cases can account for the percentage rise in the towns budget from year to year. IF you read a town report many of them make reference to this with statements like "the towns grand list increased by 3% this year"

As we all know however, land is limited so some towns/cities can no longer increase there budgets (via an increased grand list) in this way. They also can not annex nearby land since there are no unincorporated areas in CT. (i.e all land is already claimed and taxed, unless specially declared tax exempt such as Govt buildings/land)

This goes way over the average person head though.

Great post, although I think you meant X * Y = Z, with X being the mill rate, Y being the grand list and Z being the budget.

[MrGompers]

Originally Posted by Mike 75

Great post, although I think you meant X * Y = Z, with X being the mill rate, Y being the grand list and Z being the budget.

Yes that should have been multiply instead of addition. The forum doesn't let you edit your posts after a certain amount of time has passed I guess. You also named the variables correctly.

I also made the classic mistake of writing they're instead of their.

[JayCT]

Please return to the topic of the OP which is layoff warnings for state workers. JayCT, Moderator

[Rich Cabeza]

We just had a union meeting. Our president said most of the 900 million deficit is bridge and other projects (about 750 million). That's why the union is so adamant about where the cuts should come from. Good call Jay.