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08/23/2016 02:00 PMWith budget planning for the 2017-2018 fiscal year on the horizon, the Town of Madison is looking for new ways to raise revenues, starting with the town’s fee system.
The town collects fees for building inspections, permits, restaurant inspections, septic inspections, and similar services. First Selectman Tom Banisch said the town needs to update the current rates for these fees.
“Our permits and inspection fees are woefully inadequate for what we are doing and they are way below what every other town does,’ he said. “We don’t even have some of the permit fees or inspection fees that other towns have.”
Banisch said the fee structure has not been adjusted in some time. He said the fees should cover the cost of services needed to complete the permit or inspection.
“When someone pulls for a building permit, the building inspector goes out numerous time to inspect the progress of the building, so those fees are supposed to cover the cost of him doing that and they don’t,” he said.
The new system would bring the town’s fee structure in line with similar towns according to Banisch. For example, Madison currently charges a $50 flat fee for a certification of occupancy inspection for both residential and commercial dwellings, whereas the Town of Guilford charges certification of occupancy inspection fees on a scale, with private residences starting at $50 per unit, but commercial dwelling certifications for spaces of more than 25,000 square feet costing $200 per unit inspection.
“We are putting a structure in place so that it shifts the burden from the taxpayer to the user,” Banisch said. “In every other town when there is a restaurant inspection there is a fee, so we are just saying we are going to do the same thing as everyone else.”
Banisch said the town is working to ensure the fees will be reasonable, but said he thinks the increase in fees will be a significant source of revenue.
“We did a small analysis when the Health Department was involved and we found out that the revenues were sufficient enough to cover the cost of the Health Department,” he said. “Now that [Director of Health] Trent [Joseph] has come in and proposed a schedule of fees, it is actually greater than what we had anticipated. I think the number we were looking at, at the time, would be bringing the revenue number up to $45,000 a year through the collection of fees. I know it will be larger than that because [Joseph] is proposing a greater list than we had imagined.”
A town meeting will be held at a future date on the fee changes.