Finance Board Sets

Ambitious Budget Schedule

By John Voket

The Board of Finance kicks its phase of budget deliberations into gear Wednesday, February 25, by hearing comments from the community during a scheduled public hearing beginning at 7 pm in the Newtown High School lecture hall.

Once the public has had an opportunity to speak that evening, the board is set to hold a special meeting to discuss and possibly act on a resolution authorize issuance of $10 million in general obligation bonds. By conducting the special meeting on that single item February 25, the board will not be required to hold its regular meeting the following night.

Armed with the public’s input, the finance officials will launch into their work deliberating the full townwide implications of budget proposals tendered by the Boards of Selectmen and Education.

On February 5, the Board of Selectmen completed its budget deliberations and recommended a town budget of $38,000,069, which represents a $1.43 million or 3.63 percent decrease from the current year’s municipal operating budget.

On Tuesday, February 10, the Board of Education voted to recommend a budget proposal totaling nearly $67.2 million, representing a 1.74 percent increase over the current operating budget.

Finance board Chair John Kortze said to facilitate the greatest transparency, all proceedings will be filmed by the high school Tech Club for broadcast on the local cable public access network. Highlights of each meeting will also be provided to The Bee, and will be posted as video files on the newspaper’s website.

To further ensure access by any taxpayer to the proceedings, deliberations on the town and school sides of the budget proposal will be staggered. The board plans to review issues on the town side proposal on March 2 and March 9, and the school district proposal on March 5 and March 11.

All four of those meetings, as well as a fifth general deliberation session on March 12, are scheduled to run from 7 to 9:30 pm in the high school lecture hall.

Ultimately, the finance board is bound to recommend a final town and school budget to the Legislative Council in time for its planned public hearing March 18.