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Town Council Sets Mill Rate

For the first time in five years, the mill rate is going up. The Town Council approved the mill rate for the 2024-’25 fiscal year at its May 15 meeting, setting the new rate at 30.26.

At a referendum on May 8, Clinton voters overwhelmingly approved a total budget of $64,424,043, a $2,275,088, or a 3.6% increase over the current year’s budget.

Following that vote, the council had to formally set the mill rate at its next meeting. The vote to approve the mill rate was unanimous. The mill rate is used to calculate property taxes. A mill equals $1.00 of tax for each $1,000 of assessment.

The new mill rate is slightly higher than the previous mill rate of 29.83. 2024 is the first year the mill rate has risen in five years. In fact, the mill rate actually decreased from 31.25 in 2020 to 29.83 in 2021. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Town Council has made efforts to keep mill rate fluctuation as flat as possible. The mill rate was kept flat in 2020, 2022, and 2023.

Under the initial proposed budget presented to the town council in February, the mill rate was projected to rise by 5.10% (1.52 mills) to 31.35 mills. Former Town Manager Karl Kilduff explained then that the difference between the proposed budget increase and the tax rate was due to shrinking in the grand list and a lower appropriation of money from the fund balance than has been used in recent years.

However, later in the budget process the council unanimously voted to increase the money applied from the fund balance to offset a larger mill rate increase.

“There were two proposals posed by our former Town Manager Karl Kilduff, and the council chose the scenario in which we use [the] unassigned fund balance to pay for capital projects as opposed to some projects being funded by tax dollars,” said Town Council chairperson Carrie Allen explained at the time.