Reserves, Debt & Revenue Mix

Where the money comes from, what the town owes, and what it has set aside — on the state's uniform numbers for all 169 CT towns.

AUDITED FY 2013-14 → FY 2022-23
PULLED 2026-08-10

Total fund balance $11.4M Audited actual, FY 2022-23. CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators (ej6f-y2wf).

Fund balance, share of spending 18.1%RANK 69 / 169 1.7 percentage points below the statewide median of 19.9% Total fund balance ÷ total expenditures, FY 2022-23. CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators (ej6f-y2wf).

Bonded long-term debt $19.6M Audited actual, FY 2022-23. CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators (ej6f-y2wf).

Debt per resident $1,265RANK 61 / 169 27% below the statewide median of $1,741 Bonded long-term debt ÷ population, FY 2022-23. CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators (ej6f-y2wf).

Intergovernmental revenue share 30.6%RANK 136 / 169 10.1 percentage points above the statewide median of 20.5% Revenue from other governments ÷ total revenues, FY 2022-23. CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators (ej6f-y2wf).

What you are looking at, and what it is not. Every chart on this page comes from one source: the CT Office of Policy and Management’s Municipal Fiscal Indicators, built from the audited financial statements each town files with the state and cross-walked to Connecticut’s Uniform Chart of Accounts so all 169 towns report the same line items the same way. That makes peer comparison possible, but it comes with conditions a reader should know up front:

These are audited actuals, not the adopted budget. The budget pages elsewhere on this site chart what Colchester appropriated in its general fund. These figures are what was spent and received across all governmental funds, including grant money (ESSER, Title I, IDEA, food service) that the local budget never appropriates. OPM totals therefore run several million dollars above the adopted-budget figures. The two series answer different questions and should not be read as one.
Coverage runs FY 2013-14 through FY 2022-23. That is the full span OPM publishes town-by-town. FY 2023-24 and FY 2024-25 have not been released.
OPM compiled the figures itself through FY 2019; from FY 2020 forward towns self-report their own audited data. OPM discloses this change in the dataset description.
Revaluation moves nominal mill rates. Colchester revalued for FY 2022-23. Where a rate is compared across towns or across years here, the equalized rate is used.
The one table reads a second OPM dataset. Statutory aid, line by line, is OPM’s estimate of formula grants (sdcm-adr4), named beside it. It is a different basis from the audited aid-share chart above it and the two are not compared.

Why this page exists

The Budget Trends page already uses this dataset to compare Colchester’s spending growth with its peers. This page covers the parts of the same state dataset the site had not used: where revenue comes from, how much the town holds in reserve, what it owes, and how its spending splits between wages, employee benefits, and everything else.

Two peer groups appear throughout, matching the rest of the site: surrounding towns (the eight towns bordering Colchester) and DRG D (the official 2006 CT SDE District Reference Group Colchester belongs to). Each group is summarized by its median, and Colchester is excluded from its own group medians.

Where does the town’s money come from?

Where Colchester’s Revenue Comes From

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Source: CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators, ej6f-y2wf (property_tax_revenues, intergovernmental_revenues, total_revenues). See the recipe at the bottom of this page.

Which state grants make up that aid, and how much is each one?

What the State Has Appropriated for Colchester, Line by Line

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Statutory formula grants the state lists for Colchester, by program and state fiscal year
Program
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Source: CT OPM, Estimates of Statutory Aid to Municipalities, sdcm-adr4 — every grant column the dataset publishes (tiered_pilot, motor_vehicle_tax, supplemental_revenue_sharing, mashantucket_pequot_mohegan, supplemental_town_aid, town_aid_road, local_capital_improvement, municipal_grants_in_aid, education_cost_sharing, adult_education, special_education_and_expansion_development, district_repair_and_improvement_project, supplemental_education_aid, district_relief_and_compensatory_use_learning_aid) and its total, packaged as /data/ct_statutory_aid.json. The first total row is added here from the lines; the second is the state’s own total, printed as the check. The state describes the earlier years as actual grant amounts and the latest as an estimate under current enacted law; none is an audited receipt on the town’s books, and estimates are revised. A different basis from the chart above, which is audited intergovernmental revenue and includes federal and other grants this dataset leaves out; the two are not compared.

Notes

Every statutory formula grant the state lists for Colchester, by program and state fiscal year, in the state’s own dollars. A line the state’s row does not carry for a year prints as Not reported; a line the state files as zero prints $0. The two are different: the first means the source said nothing, the second that the program exists and paid this town nothing.

Actual amounts, or estimates?

The state’s own description calls the earlier fiscal years actual grant amounts and the latest an estimate under current enacted law, and adds that audit adjustments, payment timing, statutory penalties, revised calculations and newer data can all change what is actually paid. None of these figures is a receipt on the town’s books.

What this table leaves out

Only programs paid by a statutory formula or a payment list. The state says the dataset excludes federal American Rescue Plan Act allocations and legislatively directed funds such as OPM’s Various Municipal Grants. It is not the whole of the town’s intergovernmental revenue, which the chart above measures on audited actuals and which includes federal and other grants.

Tiered PILOT

Payment in lieu of taxes. Reimburses a town for property tax it cannot collect on state-owned property and on certain private tax-exempt property. Calculated by a statutory formula (C.G.S. §12-18b) that accounts for the town’s equalized net grand list per capita among other variables, and paid from the Municipal Revenue Sharing Fund. Administered by OPM.

Motor Vehicle Tax Reimbursement

Reimburses towns and districts for revenue lost to the statutory cap on motor vehicle mill rates, by the formula in C.G.S. §4-66l, from the Municipal Revenue Sharing Fund. A town whose motor vehicle rate sits under the cap loses nothing to it, which is why many towns are listed at $0. Administered by OPM.

Supplemental Revenue Sharing

The successor to two earlier payment lists, the Municipal Revenue Sharing Grant and the Municipal Stabilization Grant, consolidated into one list in C.G.S. §4-66p as amended by PA 23-204 and paid from the Municipal Revenue Sharing Fund. The state notes that a later budget act (PA 25-174 §180) set higher payments for eleven municipalities than the list in statute. Administered by OPM.

Mashantucket Pequot & Mohegan Fund Grant

A grant from the fund that receives part of the state’s revenue from the two tribal casinos, distributed by a town-by-town payment list written into each budget act (most recently PA 25-168 §25). The same list pays three tribes a fixed annual amount. Administered by OPM.

Supplemental Town Aid

A one-time grant, appropriated in one fiscal year and paid in the next, distributed by a payment list in the state budget act (PA 26-68 §464). Not a recurring formula grant, so it appears in one year’s column and not the others.

Town Aid Road

The Town Aid Road Fund grant for building and maintaining public highways, roads and bridges, under C.G.S. §13a-175a through §13a-175e and §13a-175i. Funded from the Special Transportation Fund in some years and from bond authorizations in others. Administered by the Department of Transportation.

Local Capital Improvement (LoCIP)

Grants for local capital projects under C.G.S. §7-535 through §7-538, funded by bond authorization and distributed by formula. The state notes the program now pays as a grant rather than as a reimbursement. Administered by OPM.

Municipal Grants-in-Aid

A second bond-funded grant for public highways, roads and bridges under C.G.S. §13a-175a, distributed by a payment list written into the bond act (PA 23-205 §55, then PA 25-174 §55). The state notes that the most recent increase in the authorization went to eight municipalities. Administered by OPM.

Education Cost Sharing

The state’s main education equalization grant, under C.G.S. §10-262f through §10-262j. Each town’s entitlement comes from a statutory formula that has been phased in over several years: a town whose formula amount is higher than its earlier grant has received scheduled increases toward it, and a town whose formula amount is lower has been held at its earlier grant rather than reduced. The state notes that the earliest year here reflects final grants including prior-year adjustments, while the later years are entitlements before any such adjustment. Administered by the State Department of Education.

Adult Education

Reimburses part of a town’s adult education spending on a sliding scale from 0% to 65%, under C.G.S. §10-71 and §10-71a. Administered by the State Department of Education.

Special Education and Expansion Development

SEED grants under PA 25-67 §7, distributed within the amount appropriated on the basis of special education enrollment and weights taken from the ECS formula. A newer program, so an earlier year can carry no line for it. Administered by the State Department of Education.

District Repair and Improvement Project

Grants under C.G.S. §10-265u, set by formula and paid to local and regional boards of education, regional educational service centers, magnet school operators, endowed academies and charter schools. A regional school district appears in the state’s file as its own grantee, not under its member towns, and the state says grantees other than local and regional boards are left out of this publication. Administered by OPM.

Supplemental Education Aid

Grants distributed by a payment list in the state budget act (PA 26-68 §390), from an appropriation to the State Department of Education that the same section also directs in part to magnet, charter, vocational agriculture and oversight programs. Only the town payment list appears here.

District Relief and Compensatory Use Learning Aid

Grants directed by the state budget act (PA 26-68 §394) to a listed set of municipalities by payment list. A town not on the list shows $0 or Not reported, as the state’s row has it.

How much does the town hold in reserve?

Fund Balance — the Town’s Reserves

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Source: CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators, ej6f-y2wf (total_fund_balance and unassigned, each ÷ total_expenditures). On the commonly cited 17% benchmark: the GFOA’s published general recommendation is that a government hold no less than two months — about 17% — of general fund operating revenues or expenditures as unrestricted fund balance. That is a narrower measure than total fund balance and a narrower denominator than all-funds expenditures, so it lines up with the dotted unassigned line rather than the solid total line. It is a general professional guideline, not a state requirement and not a target Colchester has adopted.

Notes

Reserves as a share of total expenditures, on two measures. Total fund balance (solid lines) counts restricted, committed, assigned, and unassigned amounts together, and is the measure available for every town. Unassigned (dotted rust line, Colchester only) counts just the portion carrying no designation. The two answer different questions and land in different places, so both are shown.

Where the two peer medians finished

The same reserves on the narrower unassigned measure

Two ways to read a reserve

Reserves can be read two ways — as protection against a bad year and a factor in borrowing costs, or as money collected and not spent — and this chart does not settle which reading applies.

How much does the town owe?

Bonded Long-Term Debt per Resident

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Source: CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators, ej6f-y2wf (bonded_long_term_debt ÷ population_state_dept_of_public_health). Nominal dollars, not inflation-adjusted.

What share of the budget goes to past borrowing?

Annual Debt Service as a Share of Spending

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Source: CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators, ej6f-y2wf (annual_debt_service ÷ total_expenditures).

What has been promised to employees and retirees?

Pension and Retiree-Health Liabilities per Resident

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Source: CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators, ej6f-y2wf (net_pension_liability + net_opeb_liability, ÷ population), fiscal year ending 2023. Read this one carefully: these figures reflect the plans a town runs on its own books. Connecticut teachers are in the state-run Teachers’ Retirement System, whose unfunded liability sits with the state and does not appear on any town’s balance sheet, and many towns place other employees in the state MERS plan or in defined-contribution plans. A low number here means a town carries little of this obligation directly — it does not mean no obligation exists for its employees.

What is the money spent on?

Colchester Spending by Function: Wages, Benefits, Everything Else

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Source: CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators — Uniform Chart of Accounts, e2qt-k238 (salaries_wages, employee_benefits, other), fiscal year ending 2023, function-level subtotal rows only so nothing is double counted.

How much of every pay dollar is benefits rather than pay?

Employee Benefits as a Share of Total Compensation

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Source: CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators — Uniform Chart of Accounts, e2qt-k238, “Total Expenditures” row per town, fiscal year ending 2023. Towns differ in how they book some costs — a town that pays part of its benefits out of an internal service fund or charges them to a different function can report a different split for the same underlying compensation. Treat differences of a point or two as noise. Two kinds of town are omitted rather than charted at zero: those the source does not report for FY 2022-23 at all, and those whose filing reports wages but no employee-benefit amount at the total level (their benefit costs appear inside another category). Charting the second group at 0% would assert they spend nothing on benefits, which the source does not support, and would pull down the group median. The omitted towns are named in the box above. See also the Insurance and Health Insurance Fund pages.

Where this data comes from, and how to get it again

Everything above is downloaded from Connecticut’s open-data portal. No account, key, or vendor software is needed — the state publishes it through a public API, and the exact files this page reads are checked into the project repository.

Dataset	ID	Covers	Used for
Municipal Fiscal Indicators: Individual Town Data	`ej6f-y2wf`	FY 2013-14 – FY 2022-23, 170 entities	Revenue mix, aid share, fund balance, debt, liabilities
Municipal Fiscal Indicators: Uniform Chart of Accounts	`e2qt-k238`	FY 2019-20 – FY 2022-23, by function and department	Wages / benefits / other split
Estimates of Statutory Aid to Municipalities	`sdcm-adr4`	the fiscal years OPM publishes, every grantee	Statutory aid, line by line (the one table)

To pull one town by hand — this returns Colchester’s ten years as JSON in a browser or terminal:

https://data.ct.gov/resource/ej6f-y2wf.json?$where=town='COLCHESTER'&$order=fiscal_year_end

To rebuild every file this page uses, run the two scripts in the repository (Python 3, standard library only):

python Data/fetch_ct_ucoa.py
python Data/fetch_ct_adopted_budgets.py

The first re-downloads both fiscal-indicator datasets in full and writes four files: a raw CSV archive of each dataset in Data/ct_ucoa/ alongside a _PROVENANCE.txt recording the pull date and the dataset’s own vintage, plus the two trimmed JSON files this page charts. The second pulls the statutory-aid file, checks every grantee’s lines against the state’s own total before writing anything, and records the result in the file’s metadata. Each script’s header documents every field and every caveat repeated above.

The files this page reads: ct_ucoa_town_indicators.json · ct_ucoa_function_detail.json · ct_statutory_aid.json (the statutory-aid table). Each carries a metadata block with the source URL, the pull date, the dataset’s last-updated date, and the definition of every field. Method notes live in METHODOLOGY.md and data-dictionary.md in the repository.

The data behind these charts

Colchester’s own series behind the charts on this page, as text. Each table names the dataset it came from and the year of every row. The peer towns and group medians the charts also plot are not repeated here; they are in the same source files, linked in the footer.

Reserves and debt by fiscal year

Reserves and debt by fiscal year for Colchester, Connecticut
Fiscal year	Total fund balance	Unassigned fund balance	Bonded long-term debt	Annual debt service
FY 2013-14	$5,279,441	$4,888,372	$16,278,738	$2,344,691
FY 2014-15	$5,724,206	$5,255,366	$14,448,121	$2,318,240
FY 2015-16	$6,671,056	$5,711,933	$12,628,171	$2,250,840
FY 2016-17	$7,172,800	$6,422,633	$10,765,315	$2,244,039
FY 2017-18	$8,406,943	$6,869,784	$20,927,467	$2,236,095
FY 2018-19	$8,884,784	$7,815,186	$26,153,847	$2,684,056
FY 2019-20	$9,462,892	$7,834,677	$24,339,349	$2,866,221
FY 2020-21	$10,035,087	$7,831,625	$22,458,863	$2,791,151
FY 2021-22	$10,094,724	$7,960,638	$21,068,551	$2,643,705
FY 2022-23	$11,444,201	$8,345,852	$19,611,789	$2,326,451

Unassigned fund balance is the part of reserves not already committed to a purpose. It is a subset of total fund balance, not an addition to it. Source: CT OPM, Municipal Fiscal Indicators (ej6f-y2wf) - audited actuals as filed by each town.

Revenue sources by fiscal year

Revenue sources by fiscal year for Colchester, Connecticut
Fiscal year	Property tax revenues	Intergovernmental revenues	Total revenues
FY 2013-14	$36,248,381	$19,727,811	$57,442,798
FY 2014-15	$37,226,671	$19,483,781	$58,053,271
FY 2015-16	$37,712,051	$19,575,213	$58,880,023
FY 2016-17	$38,500,512	$21,992,787	$62,116,969
FY 2017-18	$39,539,056	$21,032,544	$62,636,786
FY 2018-19	$40,028,244	$16,585,701	$58,959,293
FY 2019-20	$40,759,158	$19,391,531	$62,500,326
FY 2020-21	$41,165,635	$19,045,300	$62,281,793
FY 2021-22	$42,473,085	$18,921,948	$63,812,318
FY 2022-23	$42,264,302	$20,184,098	$65,878,387

Intergovernmental revenue is money from the state and federal governments, education aid included. Property tax and intergovernmental revenue do not sum to total revenues; fees, permits and other local sources make up the rest. Source: CT OPM, Municipal Fiscal Indicators (ej6f-y2wf) - audited actuals as filed by each town.

Where Colchester sits among all 169 Connecticut towns, FY 2022-23

Where Colchester sits among all 169 Connecticut towns, FY 2022-23 for Colchester, Connecticut
Measure	Colchester	Rank, lowest to highest	Statewide median
Total expenditures per resident	$4,076	72 of 169	$4,217
Education expenditures per pupil	$22,078	73 of 169	$22,590
Equalized mill rate	19.11 mills	115 of 169	17.18 mills
Equalized net grand list per resident	$142,320	35 of 169	$189,668
Total fund balance as a share of total expenditures	18.1%	69 of 169	19.9%
Bonded long-term debt per resident	$1,265	61 of 169	$1,741
Intergovernmental revenue as a share of total revenues	30.6%	136 of 169	20.5%

A rank is a position, not a grade. Which end of the list is preferable depends on the measure and on what a reader is trying to find out. Per-pupil spending here is OPM education expenditures divided by average daily membership, which is not the state Department of Education's Net Current Expenditures Per Pupil. Source: CT OPM, Municipal Fiscal Indicators (ej6f-y2wf) - audited actuals as filed by each town. Ranks computed for FY 2022-23 across all 169 towns.

Reserves, Debt & Revenue Mix

Why this page exists

Where Colchester’s Revenue Comes From

State and Federal Aid as a Share of Revenue

What the State Has Appropriated for Colchester, Line by Line

Fund Balance — the Town’s Reserves

Bonded Long-Term Debt per Resident

Annual Debt Service as a Share of Spending

Pension and Retiree-Health Liabilities per Resident

Colchester Spending by Function: Wages, Benefits, Everything Else

Employee Benefits as a Share of Total Compensation

Where this data comes from, and how to get it again

The data behind these charts

Reserves and debt by fiscal year

Revenue sources by fiscal year

Where Colchester sits among all 169 Connecticut towns, FY 2022-23