Windsor Downtown Alliance pushed to reduce its mill levy

WINDSOR — The Windsor Downtown Alliance is on some shaky ground after the Windsor Town Board on Monday refused to pass its more than $960,000 budget.

The board voted 4-2 to move the discussion on the budget to its Dec. 9 meeting, which will give the downtown board time to consider cutting the mill levy assessed on downtown business owners by half.  

Windsor mayor Julie Cline offered the idea of reducing the mill levy to 2.5 from 5 to appease some small-business owners who came to the board to complain on Monday night. Some complained that the downtown group now focuses on events instead of business development, and they have nothing to show for their work while duplicating duties of the Windsor Chamber of Commerce. Michelle Vance, the previous president of the chamber, has been the executive director of the Windsor Downtown Alliance for not quite two years. 

“My job all day long is to redevelop gas stations and empty buildings,” Vance said in an interview outside of the meeting. “That’s fine, but none of that happens overnight. I have a gas station on a quarter acre, and I now have the opportunity to redevelop that and that takes time. Why would you invest millions of dollars if you have a ghost town?

“We have real problems. What we’re focusing on is fixing downtown to spur development, putting parking lots in the back lot. It’s like a freeway through our downtown. If you can feel safe in our backlots, and there’s lights and no potholes, you can feel safe without having to park on Main Street.”

Three business owners complained to the Town Board Monday, urging the board not to pass the downtown budget. The board may have witnessed a bit of lingering animosity on Monday, leftover from the arguments over an idea in late 2022 to build an apartment building in a lot that is normally used for parking during downtown events. That resulted in a special election in 2023, pitted business owners against each other, and resulted in the downtown group deeding the lots to the city for permanent parking, Vance said. Vance commissioned a master plan earlier this year, which Vance said will help downtown chart its own destiny. The group was previously named the Downtown Development Authority, but rebranded to become the Windsor Downtown Alliance.

The downtown alliance is funded three ways: Tax increment financing, in which the Alliance is given the growth in value on property taxes downtown; sales tax generated from the downtown businesses (with the exception of The Mill), and the mill levy.

The mill levy raises just shy of $50,000, according to the Windsor Downtown Alliance budget. For most business owners downtown, that mill adds up to $200, Vance said.

But for some individual business owners, that mill does add up. Dan Stauss, owner of Memory Lane Antiques and Décor at 426 Main St., said the downtown group had a budget surplus of $272,000 this year. The need for that 5 mills doesn’t seem to be so necessary any longer, he said.

He told the board the downtown group was wasting money on projects, spelled out in its new master plan, that do not make sense, such as closing off the downtown to traffic.

“I understand the downtown needs a win to justify its existence, but this is a waste of money,” Stauss told the board.

He said he was a part of the original committee to create the downtown development authority, and he said every year, the board can change the mill levy. He and other business owners said that mill levy was set at 5 mills to help develop the Windsor Mill property. Now that the Windsor Mill is generating sales tax, Stauss and others said 5 mills is no longer necessary.

“That 5 mills costs me $5,000 a year,” Stauss said in an interview. (Property records, however, show he pays $2,362 for four properties). “Everyone wants to help out small business, and they cherish the charm of a downtown. How about not overtaxing us? The biggest draw that we created was developing the Windsor Mill — that created the buzz. It was something new. People are going to go to new development. If downtown becomes stagnant because they don’t have any development occurring, (people) are naturally going to go elsewhere.

“They’ve lost focus,” he added. “You bring business because that’s the place to be.”

Vance disagreed with the business owners’ concerns that the 5 mills served its purpose. She said that 5 mills is to fund operations, and the downtown needs a lot of work to correct years of neglect and wear.

Stauss said it is hard enough just competing against the major brands out there. Paying an extra property tax on top of all the other expenses that continue to rise, is painful, he said.

“You do have to do events, but at the same time, I shouldn’t have to pay an extra five mills for the opportunity to be downtown. I want a level playing field. For someone else in their location, do they have to pay more?”

Vance said she didn’t know which direction her board would go in terms of changing its already-approved budget, but she said she would discuss it with them.

“It’ll work itself out,” she said. “Compromise is always a good thing. We just need to do a better job of communicating our value. I don’t think it’s that big of a controversy. There’s a lot of history, a lot of facts, a lot of feelings. The DDA board worked really hard for that (apartment) development and we have to move on. Either we give up or keep fighting.”

Editor’s note: This story has been update to provide additional context to a quote from Dan Stauss. According to property records, Stauss pays $2,362.20 to the Windsor Downtown Alliance for four properties. 

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