Government

New Canaan Grand List Up $84.5 Million; Top-10 Taxpayer Accounts

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Despite fears that changes to New Canaan’s taxing structure would harm the town’s finances, the total value of taxable property here—including homes, commercial properties and motor vehicles—increased by $84.5 million from 2013 to 2014, officials say. The $8,136,949,551 total represents a 1.0489 percent increase, according to the New Canaan Assessor’s office, which compiles the town’s Grand List. Asked what the news means to local taxpayers, First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said two things:

Panic about a potentially decreased Grand List following higher taxes on homes in the $1 million range and lower taxes on those in the $3 million to $4 million range were off-base; and
Robust building activity and new construction—much of it to accommodate new families with school-age children moving to town—will help offset the cost to New Canaan of providing high-quality services to those and other residents. The increase is “a wonderful indication about where the town is in terms of desirability,” Mallozzi said. “The Grand List being healthy and growing is what you want in a community,” he said.

Around Town

Sen. Chris Murphy at New Canaan League of Women Voters’ Luncheon [VIDEO]

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The nation’s youngest senator—a fourth-generation Connecticut native on both sides of his family—on Friday told a room full of New Canaanites that the nation’s biggest challenge is its lack of investment in itself. The United States is at an historic low when it comes to government investment as a percentage of gross domestic product, U.S. Sen Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said during an annual luncheon organized by the League of Women Voters of New Canaan. “We are spending less than 3 percent of our GDP on non-defense discretionary spending—that’s basically education, transportation and science,” Murphy told more than 50 attendees gathered in the ballroom at the Country Club of New Canaan. “And if you want to know what the worry is that keeps me up at night, it’s that we are going to fail to recognize the true greatness of this country which has been this wonderful marriage between public sector investment and private sector ingenuity. Put money into your schools and your roads and your bridges and into science, and the private sector will do awesome things with those investments—create jobs, make new innovations, lead the world.