NORTH HAVEN

By a decisive 978-631 margin, North Haven town electors approved the revised $128 million budget for the 2024-’25 fiscal year at a referendum on June 11.

A total of 1,609 votes, including absentee ballots, were cast in a referendum marked by a 9.5% voter turnout for a budget that includes $128,580,331 in town expenditures. This total represents a decrease of $1,774,820 from the formerly rejected budget of $130,355,151 as cuts were found in public works, public safety, and sanitation, along with respective capital projects for those departments.

The approved budget will officially go into effect on Monday, July 1.

Even with the $1.7 million cut in the overall budget, the town will still be able to pay for a total of $1 million in unfunded mandates in the areas of education and infrastructure, including $550,000 for special education and $150,000 for an ADA assessment of the town’s sidewalks.

The Board of Finance (BOF) will establish a new mill rate as part of the budget at 34.64 mills, marking a 1.99-mill increase over the current one. The original 2.6 hike in the mill rate within the initial budget was a primary reason for its rejection at the first referendum on May 21.

At a June 10 special meeting, First Selectman Mike Freda explained the impact of the new mill rate on the average North Haven homeowner.

“On an average home valued at $300,000 with a net assessment of $210,000, this would represent a yearly tax increase of $418 or a monthly tax increase of $35,” Freda said.

Speaking with The Courier, Freda acknowledged that the upcoming fiscal year was a “difficult” one around which to craft a new budget, with the tax increase being a central aspect of it. However, Freda said that “to not have a tax increase had to correlate to a reduction of services,” something he wanted to see North Haven avoid, unlike other municipalities across the state.

“All over the state of Connecticut, municipalities are cutting back services, particularly on education. We’re not doing that here,” he said.

Seeing the newly approved budget as “slightly more digestible” for residents, Freda said that “there are some people that still aren’t happy with it, and I understand that.”

“There are a lot of people that don’t, don’t want the tax increase, and I recognize that,” said Freda.

Within the approved budget is a $950,000 cut in the Board of Education portion of it. The cut was found in the board’s self-funded health insurance plan and should have “no operational impact” on the town’s public school system, Freda emphasized to town electors at the special meeting.

“Despite what may have been said, there is no operational impact,” he said. “There are no teachers being laid off. There are no programs being cut, and there are no sports programs being reduced like we see all over Connecticut right now.”

The budget received support from Selectman Sally Buemi, who did not support the formerly rejected budget based on the mill rate increase. She lauded the BOF for its bipartisan efforts to craft a more satisfying budget.

“I would like to commend the Board of Finance,” Buemi told attendees of the June 10 special meeting. “All seven members worked very collaboratively, and they all contributed positively.”

Freda said he has “a lot of work to do” going forward, work which “revolves around igniting this grand list this coming year to get more tax revenue coming in from new businesses.”

Freda informed attendees of the June 10 special meeting that North Haven’s grand list growth was 0.3% in the previous fiscal year, yielding approximately $336,000 in incremental revenue, $1,224,000 less than projected.

The town will also face a real property revaluation next year, something “which is always problematic for every city and town,” said Freda.

“The reason it’s problematic next year is that property values have skyrocketed in North Haven,” he said. “When homes go up for sale, there are bidding wars. Homes are selling for greater than the asking price because people want to move into North Haven. And when that happens—when home values rise, and then there’s sale prices that are more than the asking price—then other home values rise because it’s a comparative sales analysis.”

In anticipation of this situation, Freda said he is “already thinking about reducing the bill rate next year to accommodate for the skyrocketing values of homes in North Haven.”

Freda added that another part of this challenge is to bring in new businesses and more revenue for North Haven to support an offset of the next mill rate.