OLD LYME–The $45.39 million 2025-26 proposed budget and several proposed changes to the local law books – ranging from an ordinance on golf cart usage in the Sound View and Hawk’s Nest beach areas to a $1,000 increase in the tax abatement available to volunteer first responders – will be up for a vote at the Annual Town Budget Meeting tonight.
The headliner at the May town meeting is always the proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. This time around, the plan represents an increase of $3.28 million, or 7.8%, over the current budget.
Paying off debt from large-scale renovation projects is driving much of the added expense.
Old Lyme’s government operations expenses come in at $11.39 million, an increase of $835,260 million, or 7.9%, over the current budget. That includes debt service amounting to $702,350, which is up $271,168, or 62.9%, over the current budget. The increase is largely attributable to payments on the Lymes’ Senior Center renovation project.
The proposal includes an additional $107,000 in health insurance expenses over the current year.
Education costs in the proposed budget come in at $31.52 million, which is up $1.99 million, or 6.72%, from the town’s current payment toward the regional Lyme-Old Lyme school district budget.
The Region 18 school district’s $39.7 million 2025-26 budget was approved earlier this month in a vote of 457 to 297.
In Old Lyme, the increase to local tax bills will depend on the effect of last year’s revaluation process on each property owner.
At an April public hearing on the budget, budget documents showed the projected tax rate to be 16.2 mills. The official tax rate won’t be set until after the proposed budget is approved by voters.
The current tax rate is 24.4 mills. After taking the revaluation into account – and if spending did not change at all in the coming year – the tax rate would be 15.5 mills.
The town’s grand list of taxable property grew by 57.4% as a result of the revaluation, according to final assessor’s data. That means the tax increase compared to the current year will be around 4.7% for the average homeowner whose property values mirror the overall increase to the grand list.
Assessor Melinda Kronfeld in a memo shared by First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker said the effect of the proposed budget on individual tax bills will vary based on how homes fared in the revaluation.
She used the example of a house valued at $200,000 in 2003. The tax bill associated with the property currently comes in at $4,880.
If the house went up 52% in value, the owner would see a tax bill that is $49, or 1%, higher than the current bill. If it went up 60% in value, the owner would see an increase of $326, or 7%. If it went up 82%, the increase would be $1,024, or 21%.
On the other end, the owner of a $200,000 house that went up 40% in the revaluation – which is less than the grand list increased – would see the tax payment reduced by $336, or 7%, in the coming year.
Kronfeld on Friday said 3,312 properties in town will see their tax bills go up more than the average 4.7% increase. There will be 2,331 properties looking at an increase less than 4.7%, or a tax decrease.
The finance board last month agreed to use $800,000 from the town’s predicted $14.2 million ‘Rainy Day Fund’ to help mitigate the impact to taxpayers.
Voters on Monday will also be asked to consider one new section and four revisions to existing chapters in the local code of ordinances.
Golf Carts in Sound View Beach Area
Shoemaker this week said the creation of an ordinance on golf cart usage in town-owned beach areas is the local reaction to a state law passed last year. That’s when Gov. Ned Lamont last year signed allowing golf carts to be used on public roads with speed limits of 25 mph or less.
“The best thing, according to our town attorney, is to let (people) know where they’re allowed,” she said.
The ordinance codifies existing rules in Sound View Beach and adds town-owned streets in Hawk’s Nest Beach to the regulated area.
Golf carts registered with the town will be allowed to travel on town-owned roads in the beach areas from sunrise to sunset based on the proposed ordinances.
There will be an initial fine of $90 for those caught driving an unregistered golf cart, driving outside the allowed areas and hours, or missing necessary equipment. The second offense comes with a $180 fine, while the third offense will result in the golf cart being impounded.
Golf carts must be registered annually and can only be operated with a valid driver’s license. The registration fee for this season, which lasts from May 1 to April 30, is $25. Rates will be set annually.
The ordinance specifies each golf cart must have numerous safety features to ensure drivers can see and be seen. Locking brakes, a horn, a flag, various lights and reflectors, seatbelts and a windshield are required. Children’s car seats may not be installed in the golf carts.
Golf carts cannot be driven at night or during inclement weather, according to the proposed ordinance. Vehicles are only allowed on Route 156 if they are crossing from Hartford Avenue, Swan Avenue or Portland Avenue to the corresponding extension on the other side of the road.
If golf cart spaces at the bottom of Hartford Avenue are taken, registered golf carts can use the town parking lot.
Harbor Management Commission ordinance
Selectmen earlier this month gave the go-ahead to language drafted by Harbormaster Matthew Lynch to address concerns from the Sound View Commission about chaotic conditions wrought by water taxis, jet skis and swimmers at the public beach.
New language in the ordinances limits jet skis to no more than 6 mph within 200 feet of the shore, docks, piers, floats, swim zones or moored vessels. Boats are subject to the same speed restriction within 100 feet.
The changes limit motorboats to 6 mph on the Lieutenant River, Back River, Duck River, or Black Hall River.
The boat lane at Sound View under the proposed ordinance is limited to vessels under 35 horsepower, which means jet skis don’t qualify to be there. Approved water taxis and emergency vessels are exempted from the regulation.
The proposed ordinance gives the Harbormaster, Marine Patrol and Police the authority to enforce the rules.
Any violations of the ordinance come with a fine of $150 each, or up to $750 in total in the case of three or more tickets on the same day.
Certain violations, including traveling faster than 6 mph on rivers or operating jet skis in the boat lane, come with fines of $150 for the first offense, $250 for the second offense and $350 for each subsequent offense.
‘Tax Abatement’ for volunteer first responders
Proposed amendments to the ordinance affecting members of the Old Lyme Fire Department and Old Lyme Volunteer Ambulance Association would raise an incentive meant to recruit and retain more members from $1,000 to $2,000 per year for each volunteer.
The proposed ordinance would also allow volunteers serving for at least 25 years to continue receiving the benefit even if they aren’t active volunteers anymore.
Old Lyme Fire Department President Robert McCarthy in an interview at the Town Hall this week said the fire and ambulance companies asked town officials to consider updating the existing ordinance on the volunteer incentive. He cited changes to state law, which was updated in 2021.
The original $1,000 incentive was implemented locally in 2002 as a tax abatement. McCarthy said officials in 2018 worked out a plan to deposit the incentive into a retirement account for volunteer first responders instead of using it as a tax break. The plan was vetted by Town Attorney Jack Collins and an attorney with Pension Administrative Services Inc, according to McCarthy.
Volunteers that year were given the option to continue with the tax abatement or take the money in the retirement account, McCarthy said. Any volunteer who joined the fire department or ambulance association subsequent to the 2018 agreement received the benefit as retirement savings.
The revised ordinance language again makes it possible for volunteers to choose between a tax break or retirement savings, McCarthy said.
The 2018 retirement plan states that volunteers are vested after six years of qualified service. Benefits are paid out after members stop serving or they turn 65, whichever comes first.
Sound View Parking ordinance
Proposed updates to a longstanding parking ordinance in the Sound View Beach area address private parking lots leased by local businesses, such as Kokomo’s, for customer use.
The language specifies patrons and employees in the leased lots cannot be charged a fee for parking, “nor can the normal price of goods sold by a business be increased with a special surcharge for parking.”
The hours of operation of the leased lots, which must be monitored, cannot exceed the hours of business operation.
The proposed updates come with a $200 fine for each violation, plus $100 per day as long as the violation continues. After five repeated violations, the parking permit will be revoked by the Board of Selectmen.
Newspaper Notice
Proposed changes to the ordinance governing the publication of town meetings would reverse a provision put in place in 1958 and amended in 2003 to make it more widely known to seasonal residents when off-season votes on big-ticket items over $25,000 are scheduled.
The current ordinance requires posting the notice of town meetings in major newspapers from November through May, according to Shoemaker. She said the cost of posting these announcements has risen in the past two years.
The proposal would strike the requirement to post meeting notices in newspapers in Hartford and New Britain, as well as Springfield, MA.
Shoemaker in a selectmen’s meeting late last year said a survey filled out by 341 residents revealed “not a lot of people are reading the newspapers that we are publishing in.”
She said only eight people responded that they read the New Britain newspaper.
The proposed ordinance language would require notices to be published only in newspapers in general circulation within town borders, such as The Day and The Courant.
The Annual Town Budget Meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, May 19 in the Town Hall Meeting Room for residents and qualified taxpayers.
Editor’s Note: i) This article was updated with additional information from the tax assessor.
