Ridgefield’s tax base is growing — but not quickly.
The grand list of taxable properties grew by more than $28 million last year and now exceeds $4.7 billion.
“A little over half a percent,” First Selectman Rudy Marconi said of the growth. “We’re in an off year, and we’re not seeing a lot of growth.”
Still, any growth is welcome, and will help in the struggle to keep taxes down next year.
“Six-tenths of a percent is I don’t know how much in hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Marconi said. “It’s a small percentage — but our grand list is about $5 billion.”
To be exact, Ridgefield’s grand list — the assessed value of all taxable property in town — is $4,740,322,671, according to Assessor Al Garzi.
The new grand list — dated to last fall, as always, Oct. 1, 2015 — represents an increase of $28,576,701 — or 0.59% — over the previous year’s list.
“The increase will produce an increase in revenue of $743,279,” Garzi said.
Think of that $743,000 as how much town and school officials can increase spending next year before it starts to push up taxes.
Ridgefield, like all Connecticut municipalities, taxes three kinds of property, real estate, motor vehicles, and “personal property,” which is not personal artwork and jewelry but rather business equipment.
Real estate, the value of land and buildings in town, is by far the largest part of the grand list — nearly $4.4 billion of the $4.7 billion total.
The value of real estate in the new grand list totals $4,390,330,727, according to Garzi, up $22,887,802 from the previous year. It is made up of 9,653 properties.
“The real estate portion of the grand list increased due to small multifamily and commercial developments,” Garzi said. “Also contributing to the real estate growth was a large number of remodeling to existing residences as well as new additions to existing residences. Adding to the real estate increase also was a small number of new houses built around town.”
There are 21,376 motor vehicles taxed in Ridgefield, worth a total of $245,870,653, according to Garzi. That’s an increase of $1,609,649.
Given that Ridgefield’s population is about 25,000, and there are 5,000 kids in the school system, that’s roughly a car for every adult.
The personal property portion of the new grand list is valued at $104,121,291, up $4,079,250, according to Garzi.
Because required annual depreciation in the value of business equipment must be factored in, the $4-million increase in personal property on the grand list actually represents about $14 million in new equipment owned by businesses in town, Garzi said.
Some property is assessed, but not taxed.
“There were 721 tax-exempt properties totaling $483,847,577, reducing the revenue picture by some $12,584,875,” Garzi said.
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