Susan Johnson

With Rep. Susan Johnson giving her support, the General Assembly voted earlier this month to approve a new state budget.

“We had to make some difficult decisions with this budget, but I fought to protect our town. This budget makes deep cuts to overall spending but increases funding to Windham,” Rep. Johnson said. “I fought hard to protect our state funding for property tax relief, and Windham will actually receive over $765,000 more in state aid in 2017 than we did in the previous year. I also fought to protect the car tax cut that Windham families will begin to see this July.”

Windham will receive $765,608 more in funding than it did in the previous fiscal year. In total, Windham is receiving $34,028,230 for the Fiscal Year 2017 budget, including over $26.5 million in education cost sharing funds.

In addition, the state budget caps municipal car tax rates at 37 mills, which will lower the Willimantic Taxing District’s current tax rate of 45 mills to 37. The decrease will go into effect this July, saving Willimantic Taxing District residents $640,000 in car taxes.

It is necessary to note that the savings associated with the motor vehicle mill rate cap are estimates. Actual state grant payments could vary based on audited data used to make actual payments, and the actual savings associated with the mill rate cap could vary based on the final FY 17 mill rate adopted by Windham.