MAP: How Much Does Your Town Owe Per Person?

The map above shows the state Office of Policy Management (OPM) ranking for each town in Connecticut based on municipal debt per capita.

The numbers show each town’s debt service for fiscal year 2012-13 divided by the total population. That debt service includes the total annual interest and principal paid on municipal bonds, which are most often used for capital projects.

(The data does not include debt payments on proprietary funds, such as a sewer project being paid down by the users or a special assessment district.)

These rankings are used to determine how much state aid goes to each town, including grants and education cost-sharing.

The information in the map above also includes data on each town’s debt as a percent of the Net Grand List (NGL) — assessed valued of all taxable property in a municipality after exemptions — and the Equalized Net Grand List (ENGL) — estimated market value of all taxable property.

Since grand lists can vary widely from one municipality to the next, ranking towns by debt per person is not the same as the NGL or ENGL. However, towns at the lowest end of the ranking all had ENGLs of 0.7 percent or lower.

Towns’ ENGLs ranged from 7.9 percent in Bridgeport (6th highest debt per capita) to 0 percent in Putnam, which carries no debt.

Check out this slideshow to see which towns have the highest and lowest debt per person.