NORWICH – The City of Norwich Common Council held a special meeting last week to discuss the proposed budget for 2009. While the budget is not entirely complete, Finance Director William Roberts explained the city is currently looking at a 3.02 percent tax increase.

“Our main concern was the financial impact the budget would have on the property owners, for both the taxes and the water and sewer rates,” Roberts said. Revenue the city was planning for, including state aid and increased sales tax revenue, Roberts said, are things the city cannot be sure of this year.

“This budget was extremely challenging because of the state of the economy, so we had to be realistic on revenue projections,” Mayor Joseph Maiurano said in a prepared statement. “We did not include in the budget $80,000 due to the city in state revenue sharing for 2009, because sales tax revenues may remain flat.”

Roberts said by trimming down the budget as much as possible, the city managed to bring the budget from a possible 13 percent tax increase down to 3.02 percent, while still keeping the fund balance intact. The proposed 2009 tax rate, per $1,000 of assessed value, will be $17.42, compared to $16.91 in 2008. For the average homeowner with a taxable assessed value of $55,000, the tax increase will work out to approximately $2.34 cents a month, or $28.05 a year.