State Aid To Guilford Up By $103,599, or 2.8 Percent In FY 2013

When the General Assembly voted on the state budget on June 5, 2013, Guilford fared better than last year. The town will be receiving an additonal $103,599, or 2.8 percent mroe than it received in fiscal year 2013, according to figures from the Connecticut Conference on Municipalities (CCM). 

According to the town-by-town breakdowns provided by CCM, Guilford will receive an additional $180,707 in town aid for roads than it did last year, bringing the total in town aid for roads to $361,415. Guilford also received a Municipal Aid Adjustment of $75,000 and an MRSA Bonded Distribution of $60,989. By way of comparison, nearby Madison received no Municipal Aid Adjustment, and an MRSA Bonded Distribution of only $6,391.

State Sen. Ed Meyer said Guilford has traditionally done better than Madison when it comes to certain state formulas that are based on factors like grand list and income levels, but he said he would be hard-pressed to explain exactly why. He said the formulas tend to be complicated.  "I'm told there are only two people in the state who understand those formulas, and I'm not one of them," he said.

Guilford will receive a total of $3,810,153 in money from the state, or about $103,599 more than last year, when it received $3,706,554. 

Guilford Selectman Cindy Cartier said she was glad to hear that the overall amount went up, but that town officials are also cognizant of the fact that some state fees for individuals and businesses went up as well. She said that she and other town officials are going to try to keep that in mind as they develop their budgets. 

"Guilford does not get that much from the state to begin with" compared with some other towns, Cartier said. "So we try to do more with grants and similar resources. Fortunately this year, they kept a lot of that intact. Still, increased fees in other areas may affect our citizens. We will try to be mindful of that, knowing everyone's getting hit everywhere on fees and taxes." 

Sen. Meyer said he and other legislators were glad that the towns did as well as they did. "Going into this session we thought we might have to make significant cuts to municipal aid. So they good news is that we got as much as we did," he said Monday afternoon. 

CCM officials said their analysis was based on certain key grant programs, and that the estimates were based on available information. They noted that actual grant amounts may differ and that a more detailed analysis is underway.

Nearby Madison received only $1,879 more in fiscal year 2014 from the state than it did in fiscal year 2013, according to the CCM figures. 

Madison First Selectman Fillmore McPherson said Madison was one of only two towns with four-figure increases. The other was Plainfield, with an increase of $1,190. In addition, there were six towns that "broke even," McPherson said, including Cheshire, Fairfield, Greenwich, Mansfield, and Torrington. McPherson said he will be talking with the town's state representative and state senator to find out how it might be able to fare better in coming years. 

Killingworth, Clinton, and Westbrook also did better than last year, McPherson said. Killingworth got $63,184 more than last year, Clinton $49,006 more, and Westbrook $90,684 more. 

McPherson noted that even some "Gold Coast" towns in Connecticut fared better than Madison. Darien got $37,378 more. New Canaan, $42,856 more. Weston, $62,339 more. And, Wilton, $83,856 more. 

Woodbridge got $71,323 more than last year as well. 

Jim Finley, the executive director and CEO of CCM, said it appears as though the General Assembly and the governor worked hard to keep municipal aid "as whole as possible." 

"CCM sincerely appreciates those efforts, particularly during these extremely difficult fiscal times,” Finley said in a prepared statement. He said budget highlights include retention and level-funding of the Payment In Lieu of Taxes [PILOT] State Property, PILOT Colleges and Hospitals, and the Pequot-Mohegan Grant. Increased funding for the Clean Water Fund is also a real plus, Finley said. 

“CCM also appreciates the hard work of the House Speaker and the members of the M.O.R.E. Commission,” Finley said in his prepared statement. “Establishing a tax incidence analysis capability to evaluate changes to our state-local revenue system; and providing affordable access to, and an adequate municipal voice on, the state Nutmeg Network (which can be the platform for increased information sharing and regional cooperation) are of great benefit to towns and cities."

Finley said CCM would continue to work with legislators on addressing the inequities of the state's property tax system and providing more relief from unfunded state mandates.