Hartford’s grand list of taxable property grew slightly over the past year, but fell shy of a growth target the city has set in order to keep its finances balanced.
The city’s 2019 grand list, which includes the assessed value of personal property, real estate and motor vehicles, was $4.08 billion as of Oct. 1, 2019, up 0.69% from $4.03 billion a year earlier.
The slight increase will impact Hartford’s fiscal year 2021 budget.
City Assessor John Philip, who had been anticipating a potential 1% decrease in the grand list as of mid-January, said Wednesday that the small increase was mainly the result of higher personal property tax revenue, fueled by a greater level of business investment in the city.
That counterbalanced the negative impact of assessment appeals, he said.
Reached Wednesday, Mayor Luke Bronin also said he worried the list would shrink.
”This modest increase is more favorable than we were anticipating in recent months,” Bronin said. ”But it still reflects the impact of a large number of tax appeals that have suppressed our grand list growth.”
“The growth in personal property tied to investment by businesses both longstanding and new to Hartford was welcome,” he added.
Bronin and fellow municipal leaders recently outlined plans to push for reforms to the property tax appeals process in the state.
This year’s slight increase in the grand list follows a decrease of 1.1 percent a year ago, which was the city’s first since 2011.
The 2019 growth is below a 1.5 percent target for 2019 that Mayor Luke Bronin had submitted in a stabilization plan to the Municipal Accountability Review Board.
Bronin has been insistent about not raising the city’s 74.29 mill rate — which is the highest in Connecticut — since taking office in 2016.
He said Wednesday that hasn’t changed.
“I’m confident we will be able to close any remaining budget gap for next fiscal year without raising the mill rate,” Bronin said.
Much will depend on the results of the city’s coming five-year revaluation. The city’s target is 2 percent growth.
“As I’ve said many times, the long-term sustainability and strength of the city depends on accelerating our growth as well as the upcoming results of the reval in 2021,” Bronin said.
