Legislature Authorizes Delay in Middletown Property Revaluation

Middletown's delegation succeeded in introducing legislation which allows the City to delay a revaluation which would otherwise be mandated this fall, 5 years since the most recent revaluation. The legislation took the form of an amendment to a bill (SB-201) with the exhilarating and informative title, An Act Concerning Technical Revisions to the Planning and Development Statutes. The amendment was passed unanimously, and the bill itself was included on the "Consent Calendar", under which dozens of bills are simultaneously passed without any debate.

State statutes mandate that every town in Connecticut revalue its property every 5 years, on October 1, to prevent towns from arbitrarily choosing when to determine the value of property being taxed. In this year's Budget Address, Mayor Giuliano said that a revaluation would cost $1 million in total, and in the budget he included $300,000 "as the first of three payments." He also indicated in his Address that he would lobby for a delay in the revaluation, "I will be meeting with our State legislators to stress my concerns to determine if there is any way to avoid this (unfunded) mandate."

Giuliano's efforts were successful, and Middletown's delegation (Representatives O'Rourke, Serra, Lesser, and Hamm, and Senators Doyle and Gaffey) introduced the amendment, which reads in part, "... the city of Middletown shall not be required to effect a revaluation prior to the 2013 assessment year, provided any decision not to implement a revaluation pursuant to this section is approved by the legislative body of such city." The amendment granted similar permission to delay to only two other towns, Madison and Guilford.

Tom Serra, Majority Leader of the Common Council, said that the amendment was discussed about a month ago at a regular breakfast meeting with city leaders and the legislative delegation. He said that the Democratic caucus supported a delay in the revaluation, not just because it would save money. Serra said that he was opposed to determining property values during a time of "economic instability".

This delay does not have any general effect on property tax bills. If a revaluation found that the average property value is lower, then the Common Council would have to set the mill rate higher to collect the same aggregate amount of taxes from property owners.

However, homeowners will benefit more than businesses from a delay in revaluation, because the value of commercial property has fallen more than the value of residential property. According to the Legislative Office of Fiscal Analysis, "This will have the effect of delaying changes to the town's grand list that occur as a result of revaluation, therefore, precluding a shift of tax burden between residential and non-residential class property."