The Second Mill Rate: Every Candlewood Lake Tax District on the State's Fiscal 2026 List

A Candlewood Lake tax bill in New Fairfield, Sherman, Brookfield or New Milford often has two rates on it. The first is the town's. The second belongs to the lake community itself, if that community is organized as a special tax district, and it is levied on the same assessment. Buyers ask about the town rate constantly and about the second one almost never, because it is small, it is local and nobody publishes it in one place. The state does. Every district that levies a rate reports it to the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management, and the resulting dataset lists each Candlewood community district beside its town, fiscal year by fiscal year.

Here is the second line on a Candlewood Lake tax bill, community by community, exactly as the state's dataset prints it for fiscal 2026, with the four prior years for the trend. Names are as printed, including the spellings.

How a district rate works

A mill is one dollar of tax for every 1,000 dollars of assessed value. The town rate and the district rate are both applied to the same assessment, which in Connecticut is 70 percent of the assessor's value, so a district rate of 3 mills on top of a town rate of 26 mills is a combined 29. The district's budget is set by the district, not the town, under the state's special taxing district statutes, and the money pays for what the community owns: beaches, docks, roads, a clubhouse, water systems. Candlewood Lake communities, town by town explains the difference between a district levy, club dues and per amenity fees, and why the three land differently on a budget and a tax return.

One rule to carry through everything below: a district rate that fell in fiscal 2026 does not mean a district bill that fell. The fiscal 2026 rates sit on the 2024 grand list, and in New Fairfield that list was revalued. When assessments rise, a district collecting the same budget needs fewer mills to do it. Your purchase price does not become your assessment covers how the assessment side of that arithmetic is set.

New Fairfield: eleven districts, and a revaluation year

New Fairfield's own rate went from 36.52 in fiscal 2025 to 26.33 in fiscal 2026, the largest single year move of any Candlewood town in the five fiscal years shown here, and every New Fairfield lake district that reports a rate moved down with it. The districts, fiscal 2026 first and fiscal 2025 in parentheses:

• Candlewood Knolls Tax District: 5 (8.86). Five years: 7.73, 8.58, 8.49, 8.86, 5.
• Squantz View Tax District: 3.5 (6.05). Five years: 4.63, 5.1, 5.79, 6.05, 3.5.
• Candlewood Hills Tax District: 3.32 (5.18). Five years: 5.18, 5.16, 5.13, 5.18, 3.32.
• Joyce Hill Tax District: 3 (3.5). Five years: 3.75, 3.75, 3.5, 3.5, 3.
• Tax District of Candlewood Isle: 2.99 (3.83). Five years: 3.6, 3.69, 3.83, 3.83, 2.99.
• Hillview Drive Association: 2.65 (3.19). Five years: 3.19, 3.43, 3.14, 3.19, 2.65.
• Knollcrest Tax District: 2.3141 (3.264). Five years: 2.52, 2.5472, 3.156, 3.264, 2.3141.
• Inglenook Development Tax District: 2.08 (3.15). Five years: 3, 3, 3, 3.15, 2.08.
• Lavelle Ave Tax District: 1.76 (1.94). Five years: 1.67, 1.68, 1.8, 1.94, 1.76.
• Tax District of Bogus Hill: 1.74 (1.74), the one New Fairfield district whose rate has not moved in five fiscal years.
• Timber Trails Tax District (Property Owners Assoc. Inc.): listed at 0 for fiscal 2025 and with no figure for fiscal 2026.

Read the Knolls and Squantz View lines as a revaluation story rather than a tax cut: each district's rate fell by roughly two fifths in the year the town's own rate fell by more than a quarter. The bill depends on what happened to the assessment of the specific house, which the town's revaluation notice tells you and this dataset cannot. New Fairfield's waterfront neighborhoods compared puts these communities side by side on everything other than the rate.

Sherman: one large district and three small ones

• Candlewood Tax District: 5.25 in fiscal 2026 (5.48). Five years: 5.35, 5.36, 5.65, 5.48, 5.25. Against Sherman's town rate of 16.67, the district adds close to a third again.
• Candlewood Echos Tax District: 1.8563 (1.5194), listed at 0.002 in fiscal 2024, the first year it appears.
• Laurel Hill Road Tax District: 0.024 (0.002).
• Atchison Cove Tax District: 0.004 (0.0035).
• Timber Trails Tax District (Property Owners Assoc. Inc.): listed at 0 through fiscal 2025 and with no figure for fiscal 2026, the same as its New Fairfield entry.

Figures such as 0.004 and 0.024 are printed here because the dataset prints them. A rate that small is not what a homeowner recognizes on a bill, and the district's own budget and the actual tax bill are the documents that settle what it charges; ask for both before relying on the state's line.

Brookfield: Candlewood Shores and three others

• Candlewood Shores Tax District: 3.7435 in fiscal 2026, and 3.7435 in each of the three fiscal years before it, after 3.74 in fiscal 2022. It has not moved in four fiscal years; only Bogus Hill in New Fairfield has held longer.
• High Meadow Tax District: 12.346 (12.084). Five years: 15.19, 12.779, 12.106, 12.084, 12.346.
• Newbury Crossing Tax District: 1.54 (1.54), first listed in fiscal 2024 at 1.39.
• Hickory Hills Tax District: 1.0557 (1.0254), listed at 0 for fiscal 2023 and 2024.
• Indian Fields Homeowners Association: listed at 0 for fiscal 2024 and 2025 and with no figure for fiscal 2026.

Brookfield's own rate was 28.93 in fiscal 2026 on the 2024 grand list. The town's next revaluation, covered in Brookfield's 2026 revaluation, is of the Grand List of October 1, 2026 and is still in progress. The Assessor's explainer says it corresponds to tax bills due beginning in July 2027. It is New Milford, not Brookfield, that revalued the 2025 list. When Brookfield's lands it will reset the town rate, and it may move the Candlewood Shores rate with it, though a revaluation does not move every district rate: Bogus Hill in New Fairfield held at 1.74 straight through.

New Milford: the most districts, and the most gaps

• Mountain View Association: 3.5 in fiscal 2026, after 0.0035 in each of the three prior years as listed.
• Tax District of Candlewood Lakes Estates: 3.2 (3.2). Five years: 4.3, 3.2, 3.2, 3.2, 3.2.
• Candlewood Point Homeowners Tax Dist: 2.89 (2.89), listed at 0.0029 in fiscal 2023 and 2024.
• Candlewood Springs Tax District: 2.668 (2.541), listed at 0.0023 in fiscal 2023 and 2024.
• Ferriss Estate Tax District: 0.788 (0.0073), listed at 0 in fiscal 2024.
• New Milford Fire District: 0.71 (0.62). Five years: 0.71, 0, 0.78, 0.62, 0.71.
• Millstone Ridge Tax District, Sunny Valley Tax District and Hemlock Ridge Road Tax District: each listed with no fiscal 2026 figure; Millstone Ridge and Sunny Valley show 0 for the three years before that.

The pattern in the New Milford lines, a rate of a few thousandths in one year and a rate of two or three mills the next, is the clearest sign in the whole dataset that some districts report the figure in a different unit or not at all in some years. Treat a New Milford district line as a prompt for a question, not an answer. New Milford's own rate was 30.96, the highest of the five Candlewood towns, and New Milford's Candlewood Lake communities covers what each of these communities actually provides for the levy. Millstone Ridge is the one this site has written about at length.

Danbury: no lake district on the list

Danbury reports four districts for fiscal 2026, none of them a Candlewood community: Upper Marjorie Manor Tax District at 2.39, CityCenter Danbury SSD at 1.57, Juniper Ridge Tax District at 0.6952 in its first listed year, and Cornell Hills Taxing District at 0.0064. Danbury's lake communities are absent from the state's list, which is consistent with dues and club membership rather than a district levy, and which means their cost does not appear on the tax bill at all. Confirm the structure with the community; the town rate itself was 24.99.

Beyond Candlewood

On Bantam Lake, the Deer Island Association in Morris reports 2.14 for fiscal 2026 (2.07), on top of a Morris town rate of 19.43. Litchfield lists two boroughs, Bantam Borough at 1.2 and Litchfield Borough at 1.8, on top of the town's 20. Newtown Borough reports 0.83 on top of Newtown's 28.74, and Southbury's Heritage Crest Tax District reports 16.8704 on top of the town's 24.2. Kent, Warren, Washington, Roxbury and Bridgewater list no district at all, so on Lake Waramaug and the upper Housatonic the town rate is the whole bill. The Candlewood Lake towns' mill rates compared has every town rate in the region from the same dataset.

What to do with this

• Ask for the district's current tax bill and its adopted budget, not the rate. The state's line tells you a district exists and roughly what it levies; the bill tells you what the house pays.
• In a revaluation year, compare bills, not rates. Every New Fairfield district rate except Bogus Hill fell in fiscal 2026 because assessments rose. Ask the seller for the fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026 bills side by side.
• Get the district's bylaws and minutes with the disclosures. A district is a municipal body with the power to tax; its rules on guests, rentals, slips and assessments for capital projects are part of the price. What it actually costs to own a Candlewood lake house puts the district line in the full annual budget.
• Check whether the community is on this list at all. If it is not, the charge is dues, and dues do not appear on the tax bill or in this dataset.

Two of these districts are worth reading in full, because the rate alone hides what it buys. Candlewood Isle's levy does not fund its marina, which is a self-supporting program, and the district there does not own the land it maintains: see who owns the roads and clubhouse on Candlewood Isle. Candlewood Shores went the other way, buying the community outright and running its own water company, with a published fee schedule that prices bonds most buyers never ask about: see the tax district that bought the community.

Common questions about Candlewood Lake tax districts

What is a Candlewood Lake tax district?

A lake community organized as a special taxing district under Connecticut law. It sets its own budget, levies its own mill rate on the same assessment the town uses, and the charge appears as a second line on the property tax bill. Communities that are clubs or associations charge dues instead and are not on the state's list.

Which New Fairfield lake communities have a tax district?

For fiscal 2026 the state lists Candlewood Knolls, Squantz View, Candlewood Hills, Joyce Hill, Candlewood Isle, Hillview Drive, Knollcrest, Inglenook, Lavelle Ave and Bogus Hill with rates, and Timber Trails with none.

Why did every New Fairfield district rate fall in fiscal 2026?

Fiscal 2026 rates sit on the 2024 grand list, the year New Fairfield's own rate fell from 36.52 to 26.33. When assessments rise across a district, the same budget needs fewer mills. The rate fell; whether a given bill fell depends on that house's new assessment.

Does Danbury have Candlewood Lake tax districts?

Not on the state's fiscal 2026 list. Danbury's four listed districts are not lake communities, and its lake communities fund themselves in other ways.

Where do these figures come from?

The Connecticut Office of Policy and Management's mill rate dataset on data.ct.gov, identifier emyx-j53e, which the state last updated on July 22, 2026 and which runs through fiscal 2026 on the 2024 grand list. District names and figures are printed as the dataset lists them, including entries of a few thousandths of a mill that almost certainly reflect how a district reported rather than what it bills.

Sources: Connecticut Office of Policy and Management, municipal and special district mill rates dataset on data.ct.gov (identifier emyx-j53e), rows updated July 22, 2026, read September 4, 2026: fiscal years 2022 through 2026 for every municipality and district named above, with fiscal 2026 rates on the 2024 grand list. Town rates quoted for context are from the same dataset.

Related reading:when your Candlewood town revalues next, the four kinds of Candlewood waterfront and New Fairfield waterfront: the same price can buy two very different lakes.

If a listing sits inside one of these districts and you want the bill, the budget and the bylaws read before you write, reach me through ConnorCTHomes.com.

Connor Kostyra, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson, CT Lic. RES.0836348.
Connor CT Homes is a marketing brand. Real estate services are provided through RE/MAX Rise, 1297 Main Street, Watertown, CT 06795.
This article is general information, not tax or legal advice. Mill rates are quoted from the state's dataset as printed and change every fiscal year; a district's own budget and tax bill are the authority on what it charges. Confirm current rates with the town assessor and the district before relying on anything here.