Farmington To Receive $767K in State Aid

From the office of Sen. Beth Bye.

State Senator Beth Bye (D-West Hartford) on Thursday announced that as Farmington begins its new fiscal year this month, it does so with the largest percentage state aid increase of any town in Connecticut: 14 percent more state aid, or an additional $767,000 over last year.

Bye, who in January was named Senate Chairwoman of the legislature’s Appropriations Committee, said Farmington will receive a total of $6.23 million in state formulary grants this year, up from $5.46 million last year.

“As Senate Chair of the Appropriations Committee I was able to successfully fight for an additional $10 million in state reimbursements to cities and towns for all of state-owned property that they host but cannot collect property taxes from,” Bye said. “Like other cities and towns across the state, Farmington is entitled to some of that. I know this type of additional funding is very valuable to towns because it helps to reduce the reliance on local property taxes to pay for public needs.”

The reason for this year’s increased State Payments In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) grant for Farmington is based in large part on the assessed value of state-owned land like the UConn Health Center, including The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine. This year’s state-owned PILOT payment to Farmington is $3.5 million, up from $2.745 million last year.

Other state grants received by Farmington and which took effect July 1 include:

• $1.611 million for Education Cost Sharing (ECS)
• $513,328 for Municipal Revenue Sharing Account (MRSA) 
• $372,175 for Town Aid Road (TAR)
• $138,512 for Local Capital Improvements (LoCIP)
• $32,242 private college and hospital PILOT
• $31,234 Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan grants
• $24,672 public school transportation
• $3,732 adult education