A closer look at shifting tax burdens
- Jun 27
- 3 min read
The 2026-2027 budget season has been a particularly tough one for Stafford. State-mandated property revaluations in 2025 have had many citizens concerned about their taxes since last fall. (Revisit that time, and get more insight into the process in our “Key Takeaways from the Revaluation Meeting” article.) The repercussions continued through the spring and into the summer of 2026 as three budget referendums failed.
For months, the Board of Finance (BOF) has been saying that because of rising residential property values, and stagnating commercial and industrial values, many people would be seeing their taxes go up despite the fact that Stafford is asking for less money raised through taxes this year. And that has not sat well with voters.
At Thursday's meeting BOF Chair Steve Geryk, whose own background is in mortgage loans said, he has been asked to look at assessments as have realtors he's spoken with. In every case, he said the assessed values is less than what they could get if they put their house on the market today. "It could have been worse," he said.
At the June 25, 2026, BOF meeting the board released a sample calculation of exactly how the burdens have shifted. The Grand List has greatly increased, allowing the Mill Rate to decrease precipitously, even as homeowners are seeing hefty increases in their taxes. The share of the overall Grand List pie made up by residential properties has increased by 66%, according to the Town’s numbers. Apartment buildings have made an even bigger leap, increasing their share by a whopping 112%. Still, the charts below, which are based on the Town's sample calculations, show just how much residential taxes have grown.
"That, in a nutshell, is the reason why tax bills are higher. Not because the Town is spending more money," said Geryk. "Not because we're asking the taxpayers to pay more money. It's jsut how the burden was changed." He suggested that the only way to change this is to go to the State, which mandates revaluations every five years.
Now, let’s zoom in on another part of the calculations for a moment. This calculation shows how properties that may have been valued at the same amount before revaluation have changed and the impact that it has on their tax bills. While the fictional residence and apartment buildings have increased significantly, commercial properties will see their taxes go down.
If this was Facebook, you’d probably see the comments suggesting Stafford tax commercial businesses at a different rate than residential properties. That, however, does not seem to be a legal option.
In 2019, there was a bill proposing the possibility of applying different Mill Rate to different properties. Some municipalities have found ways around it to offer tax relief, but it seems to come at the expense of other taxpayers: “Although Connecticut does not have property tax classification, state law allows Hartford to implement a program of residential tax relief that has some characteristics of a tax classification system. Hartford's Tax Cap program gives owner-occupants of one- to three-family homes a tax credit equal to the amount by which their property tax exceeds 1.5% of the property's fair market value. Providing this credit requires the city to impose a 15% surcharge on all other property owners, thus in effect creating two property classes with different tax rates.” In other words, in order to make chargining different Mill Rates to different property types a viable option, the State would have to address it before the Town could implement it. (It's an election year, so you might want to give your incumbents and candidates a call.)
Before we call it a day, let's take a look at one more very important number. In FY 2027, one mill represents nearly $1.3 million dollars. To cut the Mill Rate by even one mill, the Town would have to cut $1,295,680 from the budget.
It's worth going back and taking a look at the most recently proposed budget (which was defeated at referendum and will require further adjusting during this next round of cuts). Few departments even have a budget that big.
The Total General Government budget is $4,209,176.00, and that includes everything from thte fuel oil budget to the Town Clerk's office. Skim down to Public Safety and you'll see their budget is $1,897,863 including the police, ambulance, and fire. One of the few departments that does have a significantly larger budget is General Highways at $3,441,622, which includes the $1 million paving budget that was instituted over the past couple of years.
