North Haven’s 2026–27 Budget Initial Requests

DTC Leadership
1 day ago
3 min read

Budget season is here again in North Haven, and with it come understandable questions.

Why is the increase larger this year?

Is this sustainable?

Is this a spending problem?

Excel table of North Haven budgets for the past 10 years — 10 year history of department budget requests pulled from the Town of North Haven website

Let’s walk through the data together. All figures below come directly from the Town of North Haven’s published budget history.

The Big Picture

The proposed 2026–27 Total Recommended Budget is $151,350,598.

That is an increase of $13.7 million, or 9.98 percent, over the prior year.

But not all increases are created equal. When you break it down, the story becomes much clearer.

Long-term structural growth in North Haven has largely been driven by benefits and public safety. It has not been driven by runaway expansion of school programs.

What Is Driving This Year’s Increase?

The largest requested increases for 2026–27 are:

Board of Education: +$7.63 million
- Employee Benefits: +$4.8 million
- Salaries: +$2 million
Town: +$6.1 million
- Employee Benefits: +$1.89 million
- Public Safety: +$1.14 million
- Capital: +$2.13 million, which is project based

Most of the public conversation has centered on the Board of Education request, so let’s focus there.

The Insurance Reality

Roughly $4.5 million of this year’s BOE request is medical and dental insurance alone.

That single line represents about a 7 percent increase relative to last year’s entire BOE budget.

There are two reasons for this:

First, insurance costs have accelerated sharply statewide and nationally thanks to Trumps "Big Beautiful Bill". North Haven is not unique in experiencing this pressure. It is fair to say that we are feeling the impact of this bill immediately and in meaningful ways.

Second, and this is critical, our insurance reserves were intentionally drawn down over the last three budget cycles. Those reserves are now essentially gone. We are no longer smoothing costs. We are paying the full actuarial bill.

This is not a spike. This is the bill coming due.

For several years, reserve balances were used to offset rising insurance costs and referred to as surpluses by our friends on the Board of Finance. That lowered year over year increases in the short term, but it also removed our buffer.

If reserves had not been drawn down, this increase would have been spread across multiple years. The total cost does not change. Only the timing does.

We have now reached the point where the math no longer works. We cannot continue underfunding insurance without risking midyear deficits, emergency appropriations, or service disruptions. Our rainy day fund dried out before it stopped raining.

Girl looking out the window in the rain — We saved for a rainy day, but it's still raining thanks to the "Big Beautiful Bill"

Is This a Spending Problem?

When you look at the numbers, nearly 90 percent of the BOE increase is driven by insurance and contractual salary obligations.

All other categories combined account for roughly 1 to 2 percent of the increase, and some categories are flat or declining.

If this were a spending problem, we would see it across the budget.

We do not.

Dollar bills on a table — North Haven receives about $6 million less than our peers each year from the State of CT

The State Funding Gap

North Haven receives millions less annually in state education aid compared to peer communities.

That means:

We enter every budget cycle with less outside support.
We have less margin for error.
When costs rise, we do not have state funding growth to absorb them.

The impact is immediate and local.

What About Taxes?

The proposed increase on the tax side is approximately $3.5 million.

Our grand list increased by 2.7 percent after offsets, yielding roughly $3.3 million in incremental revenue. That reflects growth and strong management of our tax base. Shout out to First Selectman, Mike Freda for his continued efforts on economic development. Credit where credit is due.

What Does 2.8 Mills Mean for a Homeowner?

In Connecticut, one mill equals one dollar per one thousand dollars of assessed value.

Using an assessed home (my house) value of $282,870:

At the current mill rate of 29.46:

282,870 ÷ 1,000 = 282.87

282.87 × 29.46 = 8,333.35

Current annual tax: approximately $8,333

If the mill rate increased by 2.8 mills, to 32.26:

282.87 × 32.26 = 9,125.39

New annual tax: approximately $9,125

The difference is about $792 per year, or about $66 per month.

That is the real world impact on an average home.