2007 Annual Report - Town of Wilton

vote—and promote the exercise of that rightwith op-ed articles and letters to the editor inthe local newspapers.This year the registrars supervised the following:• Wilton’s Annual Town Meeting—to adoptthe annual budget and approve the rate oftaxation for the town—was held on May 1 andadjourned for further voting on May 5. Elevenpercent of the electorate voted.• Wilton’s municipal election was held onNovember 6, with a voter turnout of 20.5%.First Selectman William F. Brennan wasreelected to a second term of office.• The Town held a Special Town Meeting onNovember 15—which was adjourned forfurther voting on November 17—to approvean extension of an option agreement betweenWilton Commons and the Town of Wilton. Theproposal passed with a voter turnout of 3.9%.As of December 31, 2007, Wilton had 10,882registered voters: 4,157 Republicans, 2,638Democrats, 4,078 Unaffiliated, and 9 other(minor party status).We would like to thank our deputies, CaroleYoung-Kleinfeld and Joan Starr for theirassistance in registering new voters andpreparing for the municipal election. Inaddition, we are grateful to our dedicatedmoderators and poll workers.Clementina L. Gardner,Margaret A. Reeves,RegistrarsTax CollectorOnce the annual mill rate is approved by theAnnual Town Meeting, the Tax Collector’s Officeis responsible for calculating Wilton’s taxesfor each property owner, preparing the annualtax bills for mailing in June and collecting thetaxes due on a timely basis. Also, the Officeis responsible for billing and collecting sewerassessments, water assessments, the annualsewer usage charge and alarm management.The three categories of Wilton property taxrevenues are Real Estate, Motor Vehicle andTax Statistics 2007Personal Property (business) with Real Estatebeing the dominant source of revenue at91% of the total Fiscal Year 2007 propertytax billings. In summary, the Fiscal Year 2007Wilton tax billings are stated in the table below.The taxes are based on assessed propertyvalue (defined as 70% of 2002 market value)multiplied by the annual budgeted “mill rate”expressed in thousandths of a dollar. Thecurrent mill rate for Wilton in Fiscal Year 2008 is24.23, which is equivalent to $24.23 of tax foreach $1,000 of assessed property value.Of the total billed revenues for Fiscal Year2007, the collection rate was 99.5% or$84,334,488. Maintaining a high collectionrate is the foremost objective of the TaxCollector’s Office. The result is a low level ofdelinquent taxes.In addition to the Tax Collector, the Office isstaffed with Assistant Tax Collector TheresaLepoutre and Head Tax Clerk Tammy Cole.During the peak collection periods of mid-June to early August and mid-Decemberto early February, an additional tax clerk ispresent to assist in processing collections andanswering questions.Philip J. Damato, Tax CollectorCategory of Tax Number of Accounts Billed RevenuesReal Estate 6,519 $77,572,896Motor Vehicle 19,311 $4,531,200Personal Property 1,341 $2,924,442Totals 27,171 $85,028,538Administration9