Cheshire proposes 13.5% property tax increase as FY25‑26 budget faces $15 million gap

The Town of Cheshire held a public hearing on its proposed fiscal year 2025–26 operating budget Tuesday, March 18, during which town staff and school officials described a roughly $15 million gap that the administration says would be addressed by a proposed 3.7‑mill increase in the tax rate to 31.16 mills.

Town Manager Sean Kimball summarized the drivers of the shortfall and the proposed mill rate. “The mill rate proposed at 31.16 is a 3.7 mill increase, which is a 13 and a half percent increase over the current year's adopted mill rate of 27.46,” Kimball said, attributing the gap to about $4.7 million in revenue losses and roughly $10.3 million in expenditure increases.

Kimball told the council and residents that the major revenue shortfalls include reduced state aid and the loss of pandemic‑era ARPA and similar one‑time funding, and that the town also faced a drop in motor vehicle assessed values after a state law changed the valuation methodology. On the expenditure side, Kimball identified three large cost increases: the Board of Education request (+$6.2 million), higher debt service (+$2.6 million) largely tied to recent school…