Town Finances

What Greenwich spent, on the audited figures every Connecticut town files with the state.

AUDITED FY 2013-14 → FY 2022-23
ADOPTED FY 2021-22 → FY 2025-26
PULLED 2026-08-10

Total spending $480,942,795 Audited actual, FY 2022-23 — not the adopted budget for that year. Education $252,527,803 · municipal operating $228,414,992. CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators (ej6f-y2wf).

Spending per resident $7,565RANK 164 / 169 79% above the statewide median of $4,217 Surrounding-town median $4,595 · DRG B median $5,283, FY 2022-23. CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators (ej6f-y2wf). Outlier: among the 17 highest of 169 towns · 79% above the statewide median

Education share of spending 52.5%RANK 7 / 169 15.0 percentage points below the statewide median of 67.5% Education expenditures ÷ total expenditures, FY 2022-23. CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators (ej6f-y2wf). Outlier: among the 17 lowest of 169 towns · 15.0 percentage points below the statewide median

Population 63,574 CT Department of Public Health estimate carried in CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators (ej6f-y2wf), FY 2022-23. +1.5% since FY 2013-14 (62,610).

Before you read these charts.

Audited actuals — Audited actuals are what a town actually spent and received across all its governmental funds, as reported after the year closed. They are not the budget the town adopted.
Medians, and why the town is left out of its own — A group is summarized by its median — the middle town, not the average. The subject town is excluded from its own group median, because a town cannot be part of the benchmark it is measured against.
Census survey estimates — American Community Survey figures are rolling five-year averages with a margin of error, not counts of a single year. Consecutive releases overlap and should not be read as year-over-year change.
The adopted budget — The adopted budget is what a town votes to appropriate in its general fund before the year begins. It is a different measure from audited spending, on a different calendar.
Academic growth (percentage of target achieved) — Growth measures how far a student moved in a year toward a target set from their own prior score; the achievement index measures where students ended up. Growth depends less on family circumstances than the level does — less, not not at all — so this site shows it first.
Peer groups — A peer group is a tool for a specific question, not a verdict. A group that is right for comparing school spending can be wrong for comparing snow plowing. Where two defensible groups disagree, this site shows both.

7 terms bear on this page; the 6 most used are above. Full definitions, what each measure does not support, and the source behind it: How these numbers work.

01 Is the town spending more than it used to?

What the town spent, year by year

Loading…

Source: CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators, ej6f-y2wf (education_expenditures, operating_expenditures, total_expenditures). Audited actuals. See the recipe at the bottom of this page.

Notes

Audited year-end expenditures by fiscal year, in millions of dollars. Education expenditures and municipal operating expenditures are the two components of total expenditures, so the full height of each bar is that year’s total spending. Nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation.

Where these figures come from

The first ten charts on this page are built on one source — seven of them also use national price and cost indexes, statewide wage or income estimates, or Social Security adjustments, named in their own notes: 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.

They run the fiscal years the state publishes town by town. That is the full span OPM publishes as of the pull date shown at the bottom of this page. The two adopted-budget charts below cover a different, shorter span, stated in their own note.

What this figure includes

These are audited actuals across all governmental funds.

Why this is not a budget

An audited actual is what was spent after a fiscal year closed. An adopted budget is what was appropriated before it opened. They are different measures on different calendars, and this page carries both — in separate charts, never in one series. See audited actuals and the adopted budget.

02 Did education or municipal spending grow faster?

Growth since the first year on record

Loading…

Source: CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators, ej6f-y2wf (total_expenditures, operating_expenditures, education_expenditures), each indexed to its own first reported year.

03 What does that come to per resident?

Spending per resident

Loading…

Source: CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators, ej6f-y2wf (education_expenditures and operating_expenditures, each ÷ population_state_dept_of_public_health).

Notes

The same expenditures divided by the town’s population that year, split into the education and municipal shares. This adjusts for a changing number of residents but not for inflation.

What this measure does not say

Dividing by population adjusts for a changing number of residents, not for inflation, so this is not a measure of the change in services delivered.

Where this town sits statewide

The strip at the top of this page places the same figure among every Connecticut town the source reports it for: the rank with its denominator, the direction against the statewide median, and one mark per town. A rank is a position, not a grade — which end of the list is preferable depends on the measure and on what a reader came to find out. See statewide ranks.

04 Has spending grown faster or slower than prices and population?

Spending, population and consumer prices, indexed

Loading…

Source: CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators, ej6f-y2wf (total_expenditures, population_state_dept_of_public_health). Consumer prices — US Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U, series CUUR0000SA0, annual averages, each fiscal year carrying the calendar year it begins in. Each line is set to 100 in the first fiscal year the town reports. Audited actuals across all governmental funds, including grant money passing through the town’s books. CPI-U is a consumer price index, not a municipal cost index.

Notes

Three lines, each set to 100 in the first fiscal year shown: total audited expenditures, the town’s population, and consumer prices. If spending had grown exactly with prices and population together, its line would sit at the price line times the population line, divided by 100.

Why consumer prices understate what a town pays

CPI-U prices a household’s basket. Most of a town’s spending is wages, health insurance and pensions, and the government-cost indexes the federal statistical agencies publish have generally run above CPI-U. A spending line above the price line is therefore not by itself evidence that more was bought. See audited actuals.

Why a single year can jump

Audited actuals count every governmental fund, so a large federal or state grant spent in one year — pandemic relief is the common case in these years — raises that year’s total without any change in the town’s own budget.

05 Has spending grown faster or slower than Connecticut incomes and Social Security?

Spending, Connecticut household income, Social Security and consumer prices, indexed

Loading…

Source: spending — CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators, ej6f-y2wf (total_expenditures), audited actuals. Income — US Census Bureau ACS 1-year estimates, table B19013, the state of Connecticut, packaged as ct_state_income.json; a statewide figure, not this town’s, and the Census published no standard 1-year estimate for 2020, so that year is blank. Social Security — a benefit raised by each SSA cost-of-living adjustment (us_ssa_cola.json), as in effect in the calendar year. Consumer prices — BLS CPI-U (CUUR0000SA0). Each fiscal year carries the calendar year it begins in; every line is set to 100 in the first fiscal year all four are reported.

Notes

Four lines from a common start: what the town spent, what the typical Connecticut household earned, what a Social Security benefit paid after each year’s cost-of-living adjustment, and consumer prices. The income line is statewide; this town’s own median income, a five-year Census estimate, is on the Taxes & Income page.

Why a statewide income

The Census publishes single-year income estimates for the state but not for most towns, whose figures pool five years. A single-year statewide series moves year by year the way the spending line does; the town’s own five-year figure is the better measure of its level, and is shown on the Taxes & Income page. See ACS estimates.

What the lines do and do not show

Audited spending counts every governmental fund, grants included, and it is paid for by property taxes on homes and businesses, aid and fees, not out of any one household’s income. A spending line above the income line says the town’s spending grew faster than the typical household’s income over these years; it does not say any household’s tax bill did.

06 Year by year, how did the change in spending compare with incomes, Social Security and prices?

Year-over-year change in spending, Connecticut household income, Social Security and consumer prices

Loading…

Source: CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators, ej6f-y2wf (total_expenditures), percent change from the prior fiscal year; a year whose prior year the source does not report is left blank. US BLS CPI-U (CUUR0000SA0), the published annual percent change for the calendar year each fiscal year begins in. Connecticut median household income, ACS 1-year B19013 (ct_state_income.json), change from the prior survey year; blank where either year has no standard estimate (2020, and so 2021). Social Security, the cost-of-living adjustment received in that calendar year (us_ssa_cola.json). Audited actuals, nominal dollars.

Notes

Each group of bars is one fiscal year: the percent change in total audited expenditures from the year before, beside the change in Connecticut’s median household income, the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment and consumer prices. The income figure is a survey estimate with a margin of error of roughly a percentage point or two a year. Year-to-year changes in audited spending are uneven by nature, because one-time grants, capital outlays and the timing of payments all land in a single year.

What one year’s bar can and cannot say

A single year above or below the price bar says little by itself: a grant spent in one year and not the next makes one bar tall and the following one short. The chart above, indexed from the first year, shows the cumulative picture.

07 Per resident, and after inflation, has spending gone up or down?

Spending per resident in constant dollars

Loading…

Source: CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators, ej6f-y2wf (total_expenditures ÷ population_state_dept_of_public_health), converted to dollars of the first fiscal year shown with US BLS CPI-U (CUUR0000SA0, annual averages, each fiscal year carrying the calendar year it begins in). Each peer town’s own figure is computed first; the two dashed lines are the medians across those figures, year by year, and exclude the subject town. The same price index converts every line, so the conversion does not change where the lines sit relative to each other.

Notes

Total audited expenditures divided by population, in the dollars of the first year shown, against the medians of the surrounding towns and of the District Reference Group peers. A line that is flat means spending per resident kept pace with consumer prices; it does not mean the same services were bought, because a town’s costs do not follow the consumer basket.

Why consumer prices, and what that leaves out

CPI-U is the one price index published for every year this page covers. Government-cost indexes have generally run above it, so a line that falls in CPI-U dollars can still describe rising costs for the same services. See peer groups for how the two comparison groups are chosen.

08 How large is spending per resident next to a Connecticut worker’s pay?

Spending per resident as a share of a year’s full-time wages

Loading…

Source: numerator — CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators, ej6f-y2wf (total_expenditures ÷ population_state_dept_of_public_health). Denominator — US BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), Connecticut, all occupations, hourly wage at the 10th, 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles, times 2,080 hours, packaged as ct_oews_percentiles.json; each fiscal year uses the OEWS estimate for the calendar year it begins in. The wages are statewide, not this town’s. This is a size comparison, not a tax bill: spending is paid for by property taxes on homes and businesses, state and federal aid, fees and grants, and no resident is billed an equal share of it.

Notes

Total audited spending per resident, divided by what a full-time Connecticut worker at four points on the statewide wage ladder would earn in a year. Each line is one wage level. It shows how large the per-resident figure is next to a year’s pay; it is not what any resident pays.

Why this is not a tax burden

No one is billed per resident. Spending is funded by property taxes — including on businesses — by state and federal aid and by fees, and a household’s property tax depends on what it owns, not on how many people live in town. The property-tax measures, set against household income, are on this town’s Taxes & Income page.

Why statewide wages

OEWS publishes wage percentiles for the state, not for each town, and it counts jobs by where the work is, not where the worker lives. The lines use one full-time year (2,080 hours) at each percentile. Part-time work, second jobs and household income from more than one earner are not reflected.

09 Measured against what governments pay, not what households pay, how has spending moved?

Spending against consumer prices and three government cost indexes

Loading…

Source: spending — CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators, ej6f-y2wf (total_expenditures), audited actuals. Indexes — US BLS CPI-U (CUUR0000SA0); US BEA implicit price deflator for state and local government consumption expenditures and gross investment (A829RD); US BLS Employment Cost Index, total compensation, state and local government, all workers (CIS3010000000000I) and elementary and secondary schools (CIS3016110000000I), annual means of the quarters, packaged as us_gov_cost_indexes.json. Each fiscal year carries the calendar year it begins in. All are national indexes, not Connecticut’s and not this town’s.

Notes

Total audited spending and four national indexes, each set to 100 in the first fiscal year shown. CPI-U prices a household’s basket; the BEA deflator prices everything state and local governments buy; the two Employment Cost Indexes price an hour of government labor, wages and benefits, for all state and local workers and for school employees.

Why show more than one index

No single index is the right one for a town. Most of a town’s spending is compensation, which the two Employment Cost Indexes follow; the deflator adds everything else governments buy. The indexes differ from each other, and a gap between spending and one of them is a different size against another, so all four are drawn rather than one chosen.

What an index line cannot show

A spending line above an index does not by itself mean more was bought, and one below does not mean less: the indexes are national averages, a town’s own mix of costs differs, and audited actuals include grant money that passes through a town’s books in some years and not others.

10 Over the whole span, how does the change in spending line up with each index?

Cumulative change, spending and each index

Loading…

Source: the same series as the chart above, over the same first and last fiscal year: CT OPM ej6f-y2wf (total_expenditures), BLS CPI-U (CUUR0000SA0), BEA A829RD, BLS CIS3010000000000I and CIS3016110000000I. Each bar is the percent change from the first year to the last. Computed from the payloads each time the page loads.

The rest of this page changes measure: from audited actuals to the adopted budget. The ten charts above are audited actuals (ej6f-y2wf). The two below come from a second CT OPM dataset — the summary financial information towns file from their adopted municipal budgets (pcg4-s5rc).

The two measure different things, so their totals differ by definition, and the difference is not overspending and not a saving. Neither is ever summed with, subtracted from, or stacked on the other. See the adopted budget and audited actuals.

11 Can the adopted budget be compared with the audited actuals?

Adopted budget and audited actuals, side by side

Loading…

Sources (two, on different bases): adopted — CT OPM Summary Financial Information from Adopted Municipal Budgets, pcg4-s5rc (total_expenditures, by fiscal_period_of_budget, where the budget year ends June 30 of the year shown); audited — CT OPM Municipal Fiscal Indicators, ej6f-y2wf (total_expenditures). The two fields share a name and do not share a definition.

Notes

Two different measures of the same town, drawn as separate bars and never combined. The adopted bar is total expenditures a town appropriates in its general fund for the year ahead. The audited actual bar is total expenditures across all governmental funds at year end. The audited series ends earlier, because audits are filed after a year closes while budgets are adopted before it opens. Nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation.

Why the audited bar is usually taller

The audited figure counts all governmental funds, including the federal and state grant money — ESSER, Title I, IDEA, food service — that a general-fund budget never appropriates. Counting more funds makes it the larger of the two in most town-years, though not in all of them. Either way the gap between the bars is definitional: it is not overspending and it is not a saving.

Coverage limits

Coverage is the span of budget years the state publishes.

It is a summary, not line items: the state collects one figure for education and one for everything else, so this dataset cannot support a department-level or object-level analysis. And an adopted budget is a plan, not a result — these are the amounts a town budgeted at adoption, not what it ultimately collected or spent.

12 How much of the budget comes out of local property tax?

Where the adopted budget’s revenue was planned to come from

Loading…

Source: CT OPM Summary Financial Information from Adopted Municipal Budgets, pcg4-s5rc (property_tax_revenue, revenues_from_state_of_ct, revenues_from_federal, use_of_fund_balance and all_other_revenue, each ÷ total_revenue for the same budget year). Adopted budget only — a different basis from the audited actuals charted earlier on this page.

Notes

Each bar is one adopted budget year, split into the five revenue categories the state collects. Each segment is that category divided by the same year’s total adopted revenue, so every bar totals 100 percent and the years can be compared regardless of budget size. A category the source leaves blank is one the town budgeted nothing in that year, and the categories it does report still account for the full 100 percent.

Use of fund balance

Use of fund balance is a town planning to draw on reserves it already holds rather than raise that amount in tax for the year, which is why it appears on the revenue side of a budget.

State and federal aid

Revenue from the State of Connecticut and from federal sources is money from other governments, education aid included. A town’s share of it reflects state and federal formulas as much as anything the town decides. Shares of the adopted budget only — grant money that never passes through the general fund is not counted here. See state aid.

13 Can I check these numbers myself?

Data & sources

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.

The two datasets on this page

ej6f-y2wf — Municipal Fiscal Indicators: Individual Town Data. One row per town per fiscal year, for all 169 towns. Audited actuals across all governmental funds. Sections 01–11.
pcg4-s5rc — Summary Financial Information from Adopted Municipal Budgets. One row per town per budget fiscal year, for the budget years the state publishes. The appropriated general fund. Sections 11–12.
Comparison series, used only as yardsticks in sections 04–10: US BLS consumer prices (CPI-U, CUUR0000SA0), BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for Connecticut, Connecticut’s ACS 1-year median household income, Social Security cost-of-living adjustments, and three national government cost indexes (BEA A829RD; BLS CIS3010000000000I, CIS3016110000000I). None is a town figure.
The two are on different bases and this page keeps them in separate series throughout.

Rebuild it yourself

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

Python 3, standard library only. Each script re-downloads its own dataset in full and writes that dataset’s raw CSV archive alongside its own _PROVENANCE.txt, recording the pull date and that dataset’s vintage, plus the trimmed JSON this page charts.

The files this page reads: ct_ucoa_town_indicators.json, ct_adopted_budgets.json, and this town’s own context file at /data/towns/<town>/ucoa_indicators.json, which names the town, its fiscal-year span and its peer groups. 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

Greenwich’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.

Revenue and spending by fiscal year

Revenue and spending by fiscal year for Greenwich, Connecticut
Fiscal year	Total revenues	Total expenditures	Education expenditures	Operating expenditures
FY 2013-14	$391,212,359	$369,009,698	$159,830,154	$209,179,544
FY 2014-15	$401,451,706	$387,494,702	$164,233,253	$223,261,449
FY 2015-16	$411,612,235	$397,295,357	$167,235,645	$230,059,712
FY 2016-17	$433,144,031	$422,293,219	$182,761,348	$239,531,871
FY 2017-18	$440,979,988	$429,172,701	$228,652,269	$200,520,432
FY 2018-19	$423,559,784	$417,070,123	$213,348,575	$203,721,548
FY 2019-20	$451,156,187	$440,041,161	$232,610,360	$207,430,801
FY 2020-21	$455,016,142	$452,034,757	$237,351,146	$214,683,611
FY 2021-22	$464,975,231	$464,380,342	$248,299,524	$216,080,818
FY 2022-23	$483,288,565	$480,942,795	$252,527,803	$228,414,992

Audited actual spending, not the budget adopted for that year. The two answer different questions and are never added together. Source: CT OPM, Municipal Fiscal Indicators (ej6f-y2wf) - audited actuals as filed by each town.

Population and school enrollment by fiscal year

Population and school enrollment by fiscal year for Greenwich, Connecticut
Fiscal year	Population	Enrollment (average daily membership)
FY 2013-14	62,610	8,661
FY 2014-15	62,695	8,674
FY 2015-16	62,359	8,682
FY 2016-17	62,855	8,822
FY 2017-18	62,727	8,829
FY 2018-19	62,840	8,884
FY 2019-20	63,502	8,818
FY 2020-21	63,514	8,593
FY 2021-22	63,638	8,379
FY 2022-23	63,574	8,287

Population is the CT Department of Public Health estimate. Enrollment is average daily membership, which runs below an October headcount because it averages across the year. Source: CT OPM, Municipal Fiscal Indicators (ej6f-y2wf) - audited actuals as filed by each town.