Gerber: Key to keeping budget increase manageable is balanced development

FAIRFIELD – While celebrating the town’s AAA credit rating, First Selectman Bill Gerber is aware of what lies ahead in the upcoming budget season – a slightly larger spending plan, higher Grand List, higher wages, and the possibility of higher taxes.

Gerber, who has been leading the Board of Selectmen for 14 months, told the Representative Town Meeting Monday, Jan. 27 about his plans to find the right balance to development, whether that includes housing, retail or mixed-use. He believes that will help address any budget challenges.

“We know this will be a very challenging budget process,” Gerber said in his annual State of the Town address in Fairfield’s Board of Education offices. “We are aware of recent inflation pressures and we understand that new collective bargaining agreements have brought wages up to market. We know this was necessary to ensure we can hire and retain good employees that Fairfield needs and deserves.”

But he is also aware of the realities of the budgeting process.

“We need to focus on the facts,” he said. “One fact is that costs increase. There is no more important topic I’m addressing tonight than the following: There is no way to pay for these costs increases without eventually cutting services, growing the Grand List and/or raising taxes.

“We must find the right balance. The only logical choice I see is a balanced approach to development.”

One aspect of housing development, specifically affordable housing, will be affected by town’s recent application with the state to request a moratorium on such projects over the next four years.

“Now, we have applied for an 8-30g (exemption for affordable housing) moratorium,” Gerber said. “Once approved, in four years, we would have achieved enough new points to apply for a second moratorium, which will last five more years. But it’s too risky for Fairfield to reject every affordable housing development during this period leaving us exposed once again to zoning overrides when our moratorium expires.”

Grand List and revaluation

Gerber also addressed the Grand List and the fact that 2025 is a revaluation year, where all properties that are taxed are reassessed to keep up with market value, as required by the state.

“It’s no secret real estate values in Fairfield have increased substantially and, assuming current market conditions hold, we too should expect a big increase in our Grand List and a reduction in our mill rate,” the first selectman said.

Fairfield’s current net Grand List is currently about $12 billion. That includes $10.7 billion in real estate and $712 million in motor vehicles. Gerber said he expects the new Grand List to increase by less than one-half of 1%, “representing a modest amount of development that will not materially decrease the average tax paid by the individual property owners.”

The mill rate for Fairfield, Connecticut in 2024 is 27.90 mills, which was a 1.42% increase from the previous year’s mill rate of 27.51.

“We are cognizant that many of our residents cannot pay significantly higher taxes,” Gerber said. “Our administration will be working with every department for ways to make this year’s budget increase reasonable.”