The Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton School District’s mill rate will be the lowest it has been since 1984, the district announced at its annual meeting Monday.
Set at $8.15 per $1,000 of equalization valuation, the mill rate dropped from its $8.66 figure in 2019.
In other words, the owner of a $200,000 property would pay $1,630 in school taxes. Other taxing entities, such as local municipalities and the county, make up the rest of one’s tax bill.
The local levy was set at $1,805,020, which reflected a 1.1 increase from the 2019–20 levy. But the sum of all district property values went up by 8 percent in 2020, or by $15,450,003.
Also, the district’s operational budget increased by $4.5 percent to $11,308,125, largely due to costs associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. Federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding to the tune of $338,045, along with $91,739 in Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEERS) funding, helped make up for the rise in expenditures.
The district’s state aid for this year and last year remained about the same, and its state-imposed revenue limit went up by $50,268.
On a related note, the district’s enrollment figure, which is a three-year rolling average, dropped this year from 651 to 634.