keppism t1_jdmqc5n wrote on March 25, 2023 at 3:32 PM

I'm fine with a car tax in theory, but the way that CT does it with it tied to your township mil rate is really unfair. People who live in lower-property-value towns have higher mil rates to make up the difference in tax revenue. That means that the exact same car will be taxed at much higher rate in more impoverished areas than in wealthier areas. It is very regressive the way it is implemented currently.

If you are going to tax cars, there should be a set mil rate that is applied statewide so that the wealthy don't get to pay fewer taxes on the same car as compared to someone of lower socioeconomic status.

Itsmoney05 t1_jdnb0ux wrote on March 25, 2023 at 5:58 PM

The mv mill rate is capped at 32 throughout CT. The lower property value towns choose to tax motor vehicles at that maximum rate.

Wealthier towns with a low real estate mill rate simply set the auto rate the same as their real estate resulting in a low mv tax bill.

Greenwich has an 11 mill rate. Their entire net taxable grandlist for the town is over 34 billion. The towns budget needs are roughly 400,000,000. Or roughly $6,500 per capita.

Meanwhile Bridgeport has a mill rate of 43.45. Their entire net taxable grandlist is 6.4 billion. Town budget is roughly 347,000,000. Or $2,300 per capita.

Tax payers in Greenwich are still paying much more in taxes per person, but their effective tax rate is lower because their property values are so high in relation to the towns budgetary needs. The IMPACT of the higher taxes however is much lower in Greenwich.

If you take the mill rate of a town divided by 70% you can quickly see their effective tax rate. Which shows that Greenwich is around 1.5% while bridgeports is around 3% depending on how you cut it.

pittiedaddy t1_jdnigak wrote on March 25, 2023 at 6:51 PM

You're talking about property taxes in general. The major difference is with a vehicle tax, someone living in BP will pay 3x the tax on the same vehicle that someone is Greenwich would. What we need is a flat vehicle tax.

Itsmoney05 t1_jdnip0t wrote on March 25, 2023 at 6:53 PM

No I am talking about overall taxation for the town. Motor vehicle mill rates in this state are capped at 32 mills. Most towns set their mv rate at 32, the maximum. If they want to make it lower, they can. They dont.

keppism t1_jdoxl8o wrote on March 26, 2023 at 1:14 AM

That just isn’t true at all. I looked through the list and can’t find a single town that charges a higher mil rate on vehicles than on other property. The only time it differ is when vehicle tax is lower due to the state cap. This is publicly available information.

Itsmoney05 t1_jdoyhxr wrote on March 26, 2023 at 1:21 AM

Check Stamford's for 2017-2020. The mill rate for mv there is 27.25 but has been lower for real estate.

You are wrong. The MV mill rate is set by a towns board of finance. The town can choose to tax mv at any mill rate UP TO 32 mills. Real-estate and personal property mill rates are set separately.

StackCheddar12 t1_jdpjypi wrote on March 26, 2023 at 4:25 AM

"Tax payers in Greenwich are still paying much more in taxes per person (vs Bridgeport residents)" a better way and more direct way to look at this is someone in Greenwich with a 1 million dollar home is paying roughly $7,700 a year in real estate taxes and some in Bridgeport with a $350k home is paying over $10k. And when you compare the per capita incomes of both places, Bridgeport is paying some of the highest taxes in the nation on a per capita basis! So it's not necessarily true that Greenwich residents pay much more in taxes unless they have really expensive homes!