So we'll get started.

Good evening, everyone.

Today is Wednesday, May 20th.

The time now is 701 p.m.

I called to order the special meeting with the Board of Representatives to order.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance.

The United States of America to the Republic.

Okay.

Hi everyone, good to see you.

Uh we'll start at the top.

Representative Adams.

Present.

Thank you.

Representative Beckham.

Present.

Thank you, Representative Blank.

He's going to be excused.

All right.

Representative Bouchard.

Present.

Thank you.

Representative Pedro.

Present.

Representative Bradford.

He's excused.

Representative Kent Raleigh.

Representative Dan Cruz.

Present.

Representative Didalo.

Present, Mr.

Clerk.

Representative Dorsey.

Present, Mr.

Clerk.

Representative Field.

Present.

Representative Finkel.

Present, Mr.

Clerk.

You represent Gardner.

Present.

Representative Cobri.

Hey, good evening, Mr.

Clerk.

I'm here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Representative Grant.

President, Mr.

Clerk.

Representative Cross.

Present.

Representative Hill.

Representative Hughes.

President, Mr.

Clerk.

You representative Hyatt.

Present.

I am of course here.

Representative Le Pine.

President.

Representative Parliamentary McKinnon.

Present, Mr.

Clerk.

Thank you.

Majority Leader Morrison.

Present, Mr.

Clerk.

Representative Pavia.

Present.

Representative Belicia.

Present.

Present.

Do you represent Price?

Present.

Representative Salas.

Was that a present Representative Solas?

All right.

Deputy Major Leader Stanford.

Present, Mr.

Clark.

President Shaw.

Present, Mr.

Clone.

Representative Short.

Present.

Representative Stone.

Present Mr.

Thank you.

Representative Sylvestri.

President, Mr.

Clerk.

Thank you, Representative Wilson.

Present, Mr.

Clark.

You uh Representative Weathers.

Present, Mr.

Clerk.

Representative Weinberg.

Present.

Representative Lears.

And last but certainly not least, uh Representative Zachary.

He's excused also.

Right.

That means I've got 31 present.

Uh Barbara, does that match your count?

Yep.

All right.

I believe we have 31 uh present and uh therefore have a quorum.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Uh we have 31%.

I guess nine excused.

So we have a quorum.

The only item today is to consider and act upon the following F32.088 resolution approving an additional tax rate to provide funds to a reserve fund for capital non-recording expenditures to support the funding of future capital projects under CGS 7-361 as recommended by the Board of Finance for fiscal year 2026-2027.

We have a presentation today from our Board of Finance members.

We have our Board of Finance Chair, Mary Lou Ronaldi and our uh member um Mr.

Richard Friedman.

Um Richard, are you going to be starting the presentation?

I'll leave it.

I'll hand it over to either of you to uh start.

Yeah, I have a presentation unless you want to make some introductory remarks, Mary Lou.

Sure.

Um let me just uh start by saying, in general, uh, the Board of Finance has um done this for many years in the past, and as a result, we have accumulated what will be about eighty-five million dollars.

Um, there's about seventy-four million dollars now uh in the fund.

We previously approved $3 million dollars with a previous year surplus, and we are suggesting that we do an additional seven through this budget process, which will give us a $10 million uh in the fund 57, which we use to offset expenses for school construction.

And by doing this, uh, we won't have to bond and therefore uh tax people more for the construction that we're doing on the district schools.

So uh the Board of Finance wanted me to definitely uh encourage, strongly encourage the Board of Representatives, as you have done in previous years to please support this appropriation of an additional seven million dollars for fund 57.

Go ahead, Richard.

Okay, and it's worth adding that we've approved it on a six-zero vote.

Right.

Okay.

All right, so I have a uh pretty quick presentation.

Um so good evening, everyone.

Um I'll go through a kind of a quick background on what fund 57 is.

I know there are a lot of new members and for the benefit of the older members, and get into some numbers.

So what is it?

It's a um it's a capital reserve fund to help pay for the board of ed long-term facilities plan.

Um I gave you the two statutory sections that um that let us do this under state law, and it has to be recommended and approved to both create the fund and fund the fund annually.

It has to be recommended and approved by the budget making authority, that's us.

Uh, and then it has to be formally approved by the legislative body, that's you.

And um, the amounts can be added to the annual levy of a tax.

You can see that in the uh in the second paragraph, not exceeding four mils.

We're nowhere close to four mils.

Um, and that's how it works.

So we can under state law, we can uh add uh an addition to the tax rate, um, and then set that aside for capital projects, in this case, specifically for board of ed facilities.

So here's the uh cost of the board of ed long-term facilities plan through 2032.

Um, and you can see the components of it.

Um, there are three large projects, there's uh some smaller ones, the large ones have all been authorized by both boards.

Uh, the local shares, what I've shown, this is not the total cost of the projects.

Uh West Hill is about 400 million, Roxbury and South School are closer to 150 or 160 million.

Uh the state will be paying the rest of those projects, and the smaller projects also should should qualify mostly for 60% um reimbursement from the state.

But just over the next seven years, we have 253 million dollars worth of local share that we're going to be paying for.

And just to put that in context, that's pretty much the same as our entire capital budget over that same period of time.

So we've basically doubled how much we're gonna be spending.

And that's about 36 million a year.

So, how do we pay for capital projects?

Uh mostly borrowing, mostly through bonding, and um a little bit through cash.

Uh, what's called capital non-recurring.

If you uh go through the capital book, it'll have the funding sources.

Um, capital non-recurring is a great way to pay for stuff because we don't have to bond, but um it's not always that easy to fund capital non-recurring, and it's typically funded out of surpluses.

So if the city runs a surplus, we get to the end of the year, and the administration will make a recommendation as to how we allocate that surplus, and most always some of it goes into capital non-recurring.

So why do we have a fund 57 and why are we recommending that we pay for capital improvements with cash?

And you can see the three reasons.

Um the key is really at the bottom, which is over the long term, cash is a cheaper source of funding than bonding, it's really that simple.

It may not be it may not be cheaper in the short term, but it's certainly cheaper over the long sweep of time, and that's why we're doing this.

So, this slide has a lot of numbers on it.

Um, so this goes back 10 years.

So in the first column, you can see what the mill rate increase has been each year for the last 10 years, and you can see what the CPI was, and you can see that our mill rate increase has actually been significantly less than the CPI over a pretty long sweep of time, which is kind of a magic trick, I have to say, and uh the simplest explanation is that it's because the grand list has grown significantly over this period of time.

So when those large apartment buildings get built, that adds many millions of dollars to our tax levy, and that offsets increases in expenses.

So Fund 57 came into being in 2022-23.

So in 2021-22, that's when we got the first cost estimates of the long-term facilities plan.

That's when we first found out how much all this was going to cost.

And the estimates at the time were about $500 million in local spend, and that's over much longer than the next than through 2032.

That was almost, I think that was over almost 20 years.

And that was also before Pat Miller and Bob Duff and the mayor got us a much higher reimbursement rate from the state, which dropped our contribution significantly.

That happened in 2022.

So what happened in 2022-23 is really a miracle, candidly, and you can see that we managed to increase the mill rate only one percent, and go from zero to 20 million dollars into fund 57 in one year, and that was because we had some incredibly favorable um occurrences in the budget in 2022-23, and it was clear that really for the first time I can remember, probably anyone can remember, we were gonna have a negative tax in tax decrease actually, never seen that before.

So I think we can have our cake and eat it too.

We can create the beginnings of a very significant capital fund, and we can only increase taxes one percent in that year.

And that was really, we we saw we seized an opportunity basically.

That that original 20 million went through the Board of Finance 6.0, it went through your board 38 to 1.

And you can see in succeeding years, um, it's the fund 57 has been dropped from 20 million to 15 million from 15 to 10, and last year from 10 to zero.

And that was done candidly because there were people who wanted to keep the tax rate down.

And if you feed Fund 57 back into the tax rate by cutting it, you by $5 million dollars, you cut about eight tenths of a percent off the tax increase.

So in 2324, had that not been cut, the tax increase would have been 2.7%, for example.

Um, and the argument to do it was because at the time we were running very large surpluses, and we were not only building Fund 57 into the tax rate in this column, but we were also allocating significant portions of the surplus into Fund 57 as well.

And it's really important to point out that at this time in these years, the surplus was running between 20 and 30 million a year.

It's not doing that anymore.

Now it's back to what it was in these years.

In these years, the surplus was 4 million, 6 million.

It wasn't that large.

That's what we're back to now.

And we need that surplus for other things.

And I can't stress that enough.

We need it for capital non-recurring, which I just mentioned.

We need to increase the rainy day fund every year.

We have other obligations that the city needs to fund outside the budget, and the surplus gets used up pretty fast.

And so I don't see a realistic amount that we can put into Fund 57 from the surplus in the coming years.

And then Fund 57 is cash that the city manages, and uh it generates interest.

And Mary Lou sits on the investments, excuse me, sits on the investments committee.

It's invested in short duration investments, typically uh T-bills that are under a year.

And uh there it's nothing speculative is done with this money.

And it's been generating in recent years, it's actually because rates are up, it's been generating between three and a half and four percent.

That's accurate, Mary Lou.

Yeah, actually a little bit higher.

Okay, 4.25, 4.5.

So we've, you know, so through these three sources of funding, 45 million through the mill rate, 27.7 million through the surplus and 5 million plus minus uh in interest, we have about 78 million in fund 57.

We are recommending 7 million this year.

Um, that was kind of a compromise.

The mayor recommended 10.

Um, and we uh reduced that to seven, which is a pretty significant increase from zero because that's where it was last year.

Um, and if you add it to the bottom of the chart, uh this year the mill rate increase will be 4.8%.

Uh, don't know what CPI is going to be for the coming year, um, which is definitely higher than the mill rate increase we've seen in previous years.

But if you average it all out and you look at the mill rate compared to the CPI over the last five years, on an average basis, we are still way, way ahead of the game.

And uh, you know, I think the fact that it was cut from 10 million to zero last year, we're paying for that now, right?

So we cannot continue to fund this at zero.

We really can't.

Um, the current recommendation from the administration is 10 million per year for the next three years.

Um, I suspect when we get to 3031, we will find out that the board of ed needs more money, the long-term facilities plan does not end with those three schools and that amount of um uh and that amount of smaller projects.

I know Heart School is one of the schools that's been talked about being replaced.

That's not in this plan.

There are other schools that are pretty old.

Uh, some of them are 100 years old and need a lot of work.

So uh I could see this going on for a while, but that's the current recommendation from the administration is to um put another 10 million in per year for the next three years, and it will be spent down, right?

We're not building an endowment here, that's not what this is.

Uh, so as West Hill and Roxbury um begin to generate significant spending, which they haven't so far, uh, some of that money will be spent that's what it's for and um so uh so that's the recommendation from the from the Board of Finance as I said on a 6-0 vote is that we put in 7 million this year and it's certainly our goal I mean we we haven't seen next year's budget obviously it would certainly be our goal to get it up to 10 million next year which is going to be a much lighter lift to go from seven to ten is a whole lot easier than going from zero to seven and that is it questions.

I see um representative Finkel go ahead thank you madam president uh Richard one question is the fund also used for expenditures before we get reimbursed from the state yeah that's a that's an excellent point yeah it is and um that's that's one of the uses of the fund is that um uh there's a significant amount of float that's required to build a school like West Hill that's a 400 million dollar school um when the project really gets underway in the heavy way the billings from the general contractor could be as met as much as 25 million a month 20 to 25 million a month the state tends not to reimburse us for 60 days sometimes 90.

So just running those numbers you need to have potentially 60 to 70 million dollars in float just to build the school uh we do have other bond proceeds so it's not just fund 57 but yes 157 comprises an important component of the float that we need just to be able to manage the bill paying of the schools and that's an that's an excellent point.

Um representative Goldberg uh is representative Finkel has he yielded I believe he has it yield okay thank you uh uh Richard so we've broken ground uh on the the construction road we're starting to to see some activity at West Hill with the building um I when do we anticipate starting to see invoices rolling in uh related to the construction so when are we going to start spending down uh this fund and ext and seeing the float issue you've you've highlighted um well I'm kind of doing this from memory I think the heavy construction the real construction starts this summer right um so like any construction project you know when you're coming out of the ground the bills are they're significant but the real heavy bills come when you start to actually put up the building so I would say that would probably be this year no I would say at least a year from now okay yeah but my point is is that we are gonna we are this is no longer a a waiting game we are we're launched we're gonna start getting bills this is it it's game time so yeah we've accepted you guys did we accepted that we accepted the uh not to exceed price from the construction manager um uh on this project uh i that actually did not come to your board uh i'm not sure you know this but the the project actually came in about 40 million dollars under budget so the authorization is for 440 and I think the total cost is going to be about 400 right so my my only point is I want my colleagues to understand that although we've been waiting, the waiting game is over.

The invoices are in are shortly to be in the mail so um and I I would say that I am fully supportive of the seven, and I wish you'd gone to 10.

I think you're right.

We did uh we were pennywise and pound foolish last year, and now we're paying for it, and we've missed an entire year of interest on what would have been uh you know significantly more money.

So um I just can't encourage my colleagues and uh enough to support this.

The this is the wise financial risk management decision.

So thank you so much, and I yield.

So let me just let me just clarify, Mr.

Uh Representative Goldberg, we did actually put 10 million in this year.

There was a previous uh 3 million that came out of a previous year's surplus.

So the three plus the seven does make the 10.

Right.

I'm reacting to the the year that we did not put anything in, and that's what I'm saying.

That was I would I'm always I'm always an advocate for saving more for the future, so right.

I I agree.

Thank you, I yield.

Thank you, representative Goldberg.

Representative Pavia.

Like I like that phrase that representative Goldberg, a penny.

What was that?

Pennywise pound foolish.

I'm gonna write that down like that.

Um, look, I I I have some questions and um Richard and Mary Lou, just please bear with me here because uh I I know that you guys are the experts of money, and I don't have that brain capacity that you guys have, but just indulge me for a second.

Where where are where's the city on the 20 uh fiscal 2024 um audit?

Representative pavia, I don't know if that's a relevant question for this.

Um you can you're welcome to call them later and talk about that.

I think we have to keep the questions kind of relevant to if I'm 57 and uh what we're approving today.

That's okay.

Um, you know, I was just trying to get to um the actual answer of what is the surplus that we we have right now.

This is designed to be a trick question.

It's not big.

It's not big.

I think it was about I think it's estimated about six million for the year that's not for the year that's not finished yet.

That would be last year.

Yeah, if if that were true.

If that, yeah.

Yeah, six.

Um, for our new members and myself, what does the surplus get spent on capital projects or operational or both?

Usually, surplus is never spent on the surpluses never ever spent on operational expenses, so it's never used to uh offset the following year's tax increase.

So it's spent on the rainy day fund is supposed to be five percent of our budget, which means as our budget goes up every year, we need to put money into the rainy day fund.

That's usually about a million.

We have storm reserves that get depleted during the year sometimes, sometimes not.

We have uh what's called a heart and hypertension reserve that's required under state law for I think it's mainly firefighters.

Um, so if they have a heart problem, it's automatically assumed to be uh the city's automatically assumed to be liable because of their profession.

That that reserve is badly underfunded.

It's supposed to be at like 20 million, and it has like three.

So every year we put a portion of the surplus into there, um, and then usually what's left over, um, we will put into capital non-recurring, and capital non-recurring really supplements our bonding.

So I I happen to believe that our capital uh budget is too low.

Um it's been about 25 million for a long time, but it's been supplemented in the past with capital non-recurring funding.

So it's really not 25, sometimes it's 28, sometimes it's 30.

In really big surplus years, it's been as high as 35, but we don't have that much surplus uh to set aside for capital non-recurring, and that really hamstrings our capital budget.

And you probably noticed that the board of finance made significant cuts to the capital budget this year, and that's because we are really concerned about being able to fund these capital projects and also have to fund the schools, and that's where Fund 57 fundamentally comes from.

Is that concern?

Right.

No, thank you for explaining that.

See, I knew I'd learn.

Um I just make an overall statement.

I think that we're a lot of people in this, it has nothing to do with this board, has to do with where we are in this country right now, are feeling very squeezed, right?

Gas prices, groceries, like um, just about everything.

And you all know I'm an educator, right?

And uh we're feeling very squeezed.

Um and you might have Richard, you might I apologize if you already said this in your presentation, but how much will this raise taxes?

You know, property taxes and everything going forward before we pass it.

Yeah, so the tax increase is gonna be 4.8% this year, which uh from the chart is um higher than it's been in a long time.

But if you look at the last five years or so, we have done really right by the taxpayer.

We really have.

We've been in under half the rate of inflation.

So if you look at it sort of more as an average, um, it's still quite low.

And we brought it down, the original number was uh uh the increase was 7.89, almost eight percent.

Yeah, and uh the cuts that we made brought it down into the fours, which was a uh Herculean task.

That um, and I know this is easy stuff, just uh worried about the I mean that is as Richard said, that is a big tax increase right now.

Um, thank you for all you do and for figuring out these numbers.

And um, with that, I'm I'm gonna yield for now.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you, representative Pavia.

Uh representative Graham.

Thank you, President Shaw.

Hi, uh Mr.

Friedman, hi Mary Lou.

Uh, quick question.

I wanted to go back to um uh what Richard said about floating with that fund.

Who would manage it?

For example, if the bills did start rolling in uh next year, and is it paid directly for from the fund or are they gonna whoever's managing the fund is going to have to uh I'm sorry, the construction manager is going to have to go uh and ask for special appropriation from the fund directly into the capital budget for West Hill.

Is that the way it works accounting-wise?

Money's already been appropriated by the two boards.

Okay.

So then the administration just has to source the money, and it doesn't require any additional votes by this board.

Okay, that's okay.

Okay.

So we will run out of money, right?

Unless we bond, which we have to approve both of us, or we put money into fund 57.

And we obviously we're not going to pay for the whole thing tomorrow.

So we do that over time.

Okay, so from accounting purposes, the the line um from from the fund 57 would be paid directly if a bill comes in directly from that fund, we would see that during the accounting process.

Okay, thank you.

And thank you guys for figuring it out, and I appreciate you as well.

I guess.

I would add, I would add that uh the city did hire an accountant.

Uh who's gonna be his toll response total responsibility is going to be to manage the bills as they come in to make sure that they're submitted in a timely manner to the state so that we get reimbursed as quickly as possible.

Thank you.

Yeah, that was my concern because sometimes the bills come in and they end up on somebody else's desk or whatever the case may be, and it it's a 90 day, 60 day, whatever the case delay.

And then if you have to go back to the boards and ask for money to go into a capital account to pay it, then it adds insult to injury.

So that was my concern.

And thank you again.

Thank you.

Thank you, representative Graham.

Representative Adams.

Yeah, Rich, um, could you explain to me um what is the reason that the tax rate is increasing so much if the grand list is growing and more um property owners is paying uh paying more taxes in the city of Stanford?

So, what is a reason for the certificate increase from what was it 1.8 to 4.8, and you say would have been seven.

So what is the axe of the need of the city that's causing that large increase?

Uh Terry, that is a great question.

So the growth in the grand list has offset a lot of sins over the years, but it's not consistent.

So the year that we created Fund 57, which I said was kind of a miracle year, the grand list actually went up almost two and a half percent that year.

That's one of the reasons we were able to, and there was one other gigantic favorable variance in the budget that pulled the total spend and the tax rate down this year.

Uh, and typically over the last 10 years, the grand list has grown between 80 and 100 basis points, which is a direct offset to the tax increase.

So if we increase spending, if the if the budget spend goes up three and a half percent and the and the grand list goes up one percent, the tax rate is is netted out of those two, and it's two and a half percent.

This year, uh, it was the lowest that I have ever seen the grand list grow go up in the years that I've been on the board of finance, and this is my 13th year, and it only went up about 35 basis points.

Um, that's a by our standards, by Stanford standards, that's a very small offset.

And that's one of the reasons that the tax increase is as high as it is.

I've been asked why is that?

Um, I think it's probably timing, actually, in terms of when projects were started, when they received their COs.

But we, you know, as the grand list gets bigger, it's the law of large numbers, and so you have to add even more and more and more to keep that percentage up.

And the fact that the grand list has been growing two to three hundred million dollars a year, that's not reval, that's organic growth.

That's new construction is really nothing short of amazing, and that's been going on for a long time.

Um, and hopefully it will resume next year.

And and also uh on the expense side, I mean, this was a a uh big year in terms of uh 12 and a half percent uh increase in health care costs, yeah.

Uh union increases, uh special education.

I mean, you guys know that the board of ed came in with a 25 million dollar increase to their budget year over year, so just the the cost of government went up uh pretty significantly as well, and that added to the increase, yeah.

Excellent.

That's that's that's very true also, yeah.

Yeah, I guess my next question is um I don't recall, but did part of the surplus um last year went to this account?

Yes, yes, yeah, that was on my chart.

Parts of the surplus have gone to this account uh in different years for the last four or five years, so even though there was a zero um increase by by the taxpayer, there was funds that went into this account because of the large amount of surplus that was and a portion of that went into uh discount, right?

And the rest went to surplus and whatever else.

Yeah, about uh about 13 million went in from surplus in this fiscal year.

Was I think it was it was that was done in two separate votes by our two boards, but the total I think uh it's in my chart.

The total was 12.7 million, even though the tax rate was zero.

That's some good clarity because we keep saying zero, but I know from the surplus we took like a few millions and put inside them.

So 13 million would have been what we added to that account.

All right, thank you.

I yield.

Thank you, representative Adams.

Representative Weinberg.

Uh thank you.

So I uh Richard and Mary Lou, I want to just uh, I'm looking at the resolution uh that uh that's being proposed here and I just want to make sure I understand the impact on the taxpayers of the um of the mill rate increase for for fund 57 so absent um absent fund 57 uh from for most of the taxing districts the mill rate is call it 24 and change obviously different for different mill rate for different tax districts but in that range um this will add again being a little uh uh simplistic here this will add 0.22 mills to the overall mill rate uh if I understand the resolution correctly so point two two is a little less than one percent of 24 in change does that mean that the the impact on the taxpayer is that their tax their their property taxes Kimberly speaking will be a little less than one percent higher because of this fund 57 mill rate than they otherwise would have been do I understand correctly yeah that's exactly right okay uh so what we're talking about is for a little bit less than a one percent effect on the taxpayers uh in what they're going to pay in property taxes this coming year uh we'll be able to put this seven million dollars into fund 57 correct yes yeah if you yeah if you want to bring it down to just hard numbers if the if you if you assume that the average um the average market value of between condos and homes is about 700,000 is the last number I seem to remember seeing from the reval that's an assessed let's just keep the number simple that's an assessed value of about 500,000 one percent is um about uh see if I have this right so the taxes would instead of being uh 10,000 uh the taxes would be about 10,100 or I'm sorry instead of being 13,000 they'd be about 13,130 right you know again for every 10,000 for every 10,000 dollars that any one of us who owns property would be paying in in property taxes this coming year this is going to cause us to pay 10,000 a little less than 10,100 right correct okay all right I just wanted to understand the impact on the on on on the taxpayer.

Thanks uh very helpful ideal.

Yeah I mean Carl the impact is minimal and when you think about what we're going to be saving in interest were we to bond I mean that that would be a much higher number.

Well Mary Lou that was the the message I was hoping one of you would have yes no and you you said it you said it very clearly yes.

Thanks very much.

Thank you representative representative Goldberg for the second time.

Uh yeah I was just wondering if uh our colleagues on the board of finance could give us a feel for what they're hearing from their colleagues in the other towns and cities nearby as to what their mill rate is gonna uh likely end up being for instance I believe I was talking to some folks in one of our neighboring towns and they were expecting a more than five percent year over year increase in their mill rate do you have a feel for where we will be well you know we're we're much lower and and I will tell you this I got a call from um the the board of Taxation in Norwalk and they wanted to know how Stanford is able to keep our mill rate so low.

They were they were um amazed because they were looking at a six or seven percent increase and they wanted to know what our secret was.

Uh so the only thing I wanted to just point out for all of our colleagues is um, and I guess you know those of us that have been here for a while are used to this, but um, we are at we have done a very good job relative to our neighboring towns of um keeping our tax increases moderate to low.

Uh so you know we we are uh prudently managed uh come uh you know, even compared to very well managed towns that share borders with us.

I yield.

Thank you, Representative Goldberg, representative Adams for the second time.

Yeah, I guess it's just a comment.

Um would not a secret be uh uh growing grand list, so we be in one of the fastest growing and best city in the state of Connecticut, so in ages.

Well, I don't think nobody's going fast in a standard.

I mean, rent is no don't allow stuff that we um developing Stanford.

So I mean, just that is that is that is part of our that is a big part of our success is the growth of our grand list, and um we have done a uh very good job in recent years of managing our pension costs, so and our OPEP costs.

So uh that's made an absolutely enormous difference.

Um, so it's really it's though I would say it's those two things in combination, but certainly the growth on the grand list is the is the lion's share of the of the offsetting of the mill rate.

Thank you, Layu.

Thank you so much.

Um I don't see any other hands, anyone else would like to ask a question while we have our board of finance members.

Okay, see no other questions.

Thank you both so much uh for the very insightful presentation and all the information you provided.

Um we appreciate that.

With that, uh, and I turn it over to Coach Ed Morrison.

I presume we would like to read the resolution to the record, Coach Ed Morrison.

That's right, Madam President.

Okay, go for that.

Okay, uh resolution number 4444, approving an additional tax rate to provide funds to a reserve fund for capital non-recurring expenditures to support the funding of future capital projects under Connecticut General Statutes, Section 7-361, as recommended by the Board of Finance for fiscal year 26-27.

Whereas pursuant to section 8-30-10 of the City of Stanford Charter on May 18th, 2026, the Board of Finance determined and fixed the tax rates and service charges upon the rateable estate in which in each of the tax districts for real property of the city as follows.

Tax district A, 24.92 mills.

District B, 24.44 mills, district C, 24.09 mils.

District C S, 24.49 mills, personal property, 27.71 mills, and motor vehicles, 2024.

And whereas Connecticut General Statute, Section 7-361 grants municipalities the authority to levy a tax to provide funds for a reserve fund for capital and non-recurring expenditures, stating upon the recommendation of the budget making authority and approval by the legislative body, there shall be paid into such reserve fund amounts raised by the annual levy of a tax not exceeding four mils for the benefit of such fund and for no other purpose, such tax to be levied and collected in the same manner and at the same time as the regular annual taxes of the municipality.

And whereas on May 18th, 2026, the Board of Finance determined to create a reserve fund in the amount of seven million dollars to be attributed to the capital non-recurring fund for expenditures for the long-term facilities plan for the public schools to be raised by the annual levy of tax, resulting in an additional tax in additional tax rates in each of the tax districts for real property, subject to the approval of the Board of Representatives, as follows.

Tax district A.22 mills.

Tax District B.22 mills.

Tax district C, point two two mills.

Tax district tax district C S.23 mills.

Personal property.

And motor vehicles.22 mills.

Whereas such additional tax would result in tax rates and service charges upon the rateable estate in each of the tax districts of the city as follows.

Tax district A, 25.14 mills, tax district B, 24.66 mills.

Tax District C, 24.31 mills.

Task District C S, 24.72 mills.

Personal property, 28.47 mills, and motor vehicles, 24.31 mills.

And now, therefore, it is hereby resolved by the 32nd Board of Representatives of the City of Stanford that the following additional tax rate and service charges are hereby approved.

Tax District A, 25.14 mills.

Tax district B, 24.66 mills.

Tax District C, 24.31 mills, Tax District C S 24.72 mills.

Personal property, 28.47 mills.

Motor vehicles, 24.31 mills.

And be it further resolved that the proceeds of such additional tax rate and service charges shall be attributed to the capital non-recurring fund.

And I so move.

Okay, so there's a motion to approve.

F32.088.

As read.

Second.

Any discussion?

Any additional discussion?

Yes.

Representative Police.

Uh thank you.

Thank you, President Shaw.

Can we just clarify CS?

Um, including fund 57, just because I recall from yesterday it being 24.71, but now it's 24.72.

Just want to verify that number.

I think it's a rounding number, Richard, isn't it?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, just want to make sure.

Um, nothing from it's from the board of finance.

I remember it being.

Yeah, the middle rate's only calculated to two decimal places.

So that's understood.

Understood.

All right, that was it.

I yield the floor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Representative Pelicia.

Anyone else?

Any other discussion?

Is anyone else anyone planning to oppose to this resolution?

If so, just speak up or raise your hand.

Because we'll then take it by roll call.

Otherwise, we'll do this by voice vote.

Are you planning to oppose representative Pavia?

Yes.

Okay.

We'll take this by roll call.

Um Clark Johnson.

Can you call the roll, please?

Everyone.

Uh Representative Adams.

Yes.

Representative Beckham.

Yes.

Representative Bouchard.

Yes.

Representative Boudron?

Yes.

Representative Camparelli.

Yes.

Representative David Cruz.

Representative De the Cruz.

Yes.

Thank you.

Representative Dillow?

Yes.

Representative Dorsey.

Yes.

Representative Field?

Yes.

Representative Finkel?

Yes.

Representative Gardner.

Yes.

Representative Gilbride.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Representative Culprit?

Yes.

Representative Graham.

Yes.

Representative Gross.

Representative Gross are you with us?

I think he left a meeting.

I don't see him.

All right.

Representative Hill.

Representative Hill.

Are you still with us?

All right.

Representative Hughes.

Yes.

Can you represent Pyot?

Yes.

I myself am also a yes.

Representative Le Pine?

Yes.

Parliamentary McEwen.

Yes.

Majority Leader Morrison.

Yes.

Representative Pavia?

No.

Representative Politia.

Yes.

Representative.

Deputy Major Leader Pollock.

Yes.

Representative Price.

Yes.

Deputy Majority Leader Sanford.

Yes.

President Shaw.

Yes.

Representative Shore.

Yes.

Representative Stone.

Yes.

Representative Sylvestry.

Yes.

Thanks.

Representative Walson.

Yes.

Thank you.

Representative Weathers.

Yes.

Thank you.

Representative Weinberg.

Yes.

All right.

I have the last three markers absent, but just want to double check you didn't join that I missed Representative Weirs, Jaeger, Zachary.

Are either any three of you here?

No.

All right.

Then in that case, I have 31 yes and one nay.

Uh Barbara.

Hill was a yes.

Hill, you are also a yes.

Then I have 32 yeses and one no.

Thank you, Mr.

Clerk.

And be it resolved, be it further resolved that the proceeds of such additional tax rate and charges shall be attributed to capital non-recurring fund.

This resolution was approved 3210 at a special meeting of the 32nd Board of Representatives held on May 20th, 2026.

Madam President, that concludes my report for this evening.

Thank you, Coach Morrison.

So that concludes our business for tonight.

Thanks, everyone.

Madam President, if I may.

Yes, go ahead.

Sorry.

I was neglectful in our regular budget meeting uh to extend my heartfelt thanks to the fiscal committee for their very hard work and diligence and the amount of time they committed to this process.

Uh and uh the learning curve for for my new colleagues uh was pretty steep for some, and I appreciate uh all of their work and their uh camaraderie and uh also want to uh thank my co-chair representative Zachary uh who was an extraordinary partner through this process.

So thank you all.

And thank you for your approval this evening.

You're very welcome.

I promised everyone this is the last budget meeting of the year.

So we got like the special meetings like again.

So thanks everyone.

Uh motion to adjourn.

So more second.

All in favor?

Okay, our meeting is adjourned at 7 53 p.m.

Thank you and have a good night.

Um, everyone