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Hartford's Grand List Rises 4% After Revaluation

STEVEN GOODE

February 08, 2010

HARTFORD — - The city's grand list of taxable property grew by 4 percent in 2009 to a total of $3.6 billion, city officials said.

The $138.3 million overall increase was attributable to growth in the value of real property, which increased by 5.95 percent.

"The main chunk was based on the phase-in from revaluation," said Assessor Larry LaBarbera.

However, the other two categories of taxable property — personal property and motor vehicles — decreased by 0.62 percent and 3.52 percent, respectively. There were approximately 800 fewer cars listed on Hartford's tax rolls in 2009.

LaBarbera said that the decrease in the auto category was probably the result of a variety of factors, including people leaving the city, older cars being disposed of and fewer cars being bought in tough economic times.

Overall, real property accounted for $2.55 billion of the grand list, with personal property and motor vehicles coming in at $640.8 million and $271.4 million, respectively.

Mayor Eddie A. Perez pointed out that half of the city's properties are tax-exempt, such as state-owned property, hospitals, colleges and universities, places of worship and nonprofit organizations.

" Connecticut's cities continue to struggle under the current property tax system," Perez said in a statement. "It is my hope that our state legislators will tackle the issue of real property tax reform because our state is only as strong as its cities."