Proposed Budget

Tops $103 Million

By John Voket

The Board of Selectmen completed deliberations on a proposed 2007-2008 municipal budget last Thursday evening, tendering an increase of nearly nine percent that, when combined with the current school district proposal, tops out at $103,028,374. It represents the first budget proposal in Newtown’s history exceeding $100 million.

But these introductory numbers, $38,111,069 on the town side, and $64,917,305 on the school side, will both be subject to refinement and probable reduction. If both budgets were approved without further reductions the increase would represent about one mill increase in the property tax rate.

A mill represents one dollar in taxation for every $1,000 in assessed property value.

School board member Paul Mangiafico said his board would not finish hearing budget presentations by high-ticket departments like transportation and special education until after The Bee goes to press February 8. He said it would be premature to suggest any specific budget cuts until all the numbers were in, but admitted the overall increase of 7.5 percent in a year where the district took in only 20 new students was “probably not acceptable.”

“We have to get into the details once all the presentations have been made,” Mr Mangiafico said, adding the overall school district proposal was the lowest percentage increase requested in ten years by a superintendent.

Board of Education chair Elaine McClure echoed Mr Mangiafico’s comments saying the board still listening to presentations on the various budget areas by the administrators in the district. 

“They are providing us with a great deal of information and responding to our questions to provide justification for their requests,” Ms McClure said. “We plan to complete the fact-finding phase on Thursday and then discuss the budget as a whole.”

On the municipal side of the budget plan, Finance Director Ben Spragg said the 8.9 percent proposed increase incorporates a proposed two percent allocation to the town’s capital nonrecurring account, and also anticipates growth in the grand list will account for about half of the remaining increase requested by the selectmen.

“We initially proposed returning $1 million to the capital nonrecurring fund, but that was reduced to $750,000,” Mr Spragg said. “This represents about two percent of the overall proposed increase.”

Mr Spragg did say some pieces of information were still missing on the municipal side as well, including the amount of state aid coming in from the governor’s proposed budget. That statewide proposal was presented to the state legislature Wednesday at noon, and in it Gov M. Jodi Rell proposed a $3 billion increase in state aid for local public education over five years. The governor also called for significant new state assistance for responsible growth initiatives, including brownfields remediation, open space acquisition, enhanced funding for regional planning organizations, and increased funding for GIS systems and housing needs.

The finance director also said that while local revenues are down tremendously, he still anticipates measurable increases to grand list revenues from a several new commercial developments in town in the past year.

“That growth in the grand list should cover about half of the increase the selectmen are asking for,” Mr Spragg reiterated.

The balance of any increases proposed are tied to more fixed costs or operational segments of the budget like wages, insurance and other benefits, utilities, and equipment not included in capital purchase plans.

Across all the line items in a budget summary provided by the finance office, debt service in excess of $9 million tops the expenditures, followed by $6.11 in the Highway division, $2 million for Parks and Recreation, $1.4 million for administration of the town landfill, and more than $950,000 for the Booth Library.