Residential property in New Canaan forms a higher percentage of the total taxable base compared to those in similar nearby communities, town officials said last week.
VUE New Canaan is owned by M2 Partners, now one of the top-10 highest taxpayers in town. Photo courtesy of Karp Associates
In New Canaan, more than 88% of all taxable property is residential, compared to 85% in neighboring Darien and 73% in Wilton, according to data shared by town CFO Lunda Asmani.
Conversely, while just 5.4% of New Canaan’s Grand List values are composed of commercial and industrial properties, the figure is more than 13% in Wilton and Greenwich, Asmani told members of the Board of Selectmen.
“That tells you who is responsible for paying the property taxes that we collect—the greater burden of these taxes in New Canaan are borne by residential properties unlike other communities that have a commercial and an industrial base,” Asmani told the selectmen during their regular meeting, held May 5 via videoconference.
Here’s a table detailing the numbers:
2018 Grand List Values as Percentage of Gross
| Residential | ||
| New Canaan | $6,808,026,440 | 88.3% |
| Darien | $7,229,167,190 | 85.3% |
| Westport | $9,124,132,852 | 80.6% |
| Greenwich | $26,695,117,150 | 80.5% |
| Ridgefield | $3,932,039,066 | 79.5% |
| Wilton | $3,174,750,610 | 73.1% |
| Commercial & Industrial | ||
| Greenwich | $4,537,175,136 | 13.7% |
| Wilton | $575,735,476 | 13.3% |
| Westport | $1,361,454,536 | 12% |
| Ridgefield | $534,197,059 | 10.8% |
| Darien | $666,428,910 | 7.9% |
| New Canaan | $415,221,170 | 5.4% |
Asmani’s comments came during a review of spending in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. The General Fund’s balance at that time is expected to be $29.5 million, Asmani said. Assuming about three-quarters of New Canaan taxes are collected in October as opposed to July-August under a planned deferment program amid the COVID-19 public health emergency, New Canaan as of Dec. 31 will have collected about $69.7 million in taxes, Asmani said. (The figure includes the nearly $30 million fund balance.)
“From a cash-flow perspective, if this holds true, we should be OK,” he said. “But we did have a discussion that if it doesn’t hold true, we do have other financing options that can be used.”
New Canaan’s Grand List—the total value of taxable property in New Canaan, including homes, commercial properties and motor vehicles—increased by about $27.6 million from 2018 to 2019, town officials have said, to $7.7 billion.
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