Following Brief Hearing—

Hart, Llodra Team Up For Proposed Budget Overview

By John Voket

Only two residents, one a former official, spoke at the Board of Finance’s public hearing on the budget February 17. But the hearing was followed by a first-of-its-kind overview presentation of the $107.3 million townwide spending plan by both the first selectman and chairman of the school board. The approach received praise from finance officials and polite applause from several residents in the audience.

The hearing portion of the meeting brought Robin Fitzgerald to the microphone asking the finance board to forward the school and town budgets to the Legislative Council and the voters intact as proposed. Former first selectman Joe Borst then appealed to the finance board to restore eliminated grants to local nonprofits that failed to respond to a new requirement that they formally apply for the funding each year through the finance director’s office.

Once the hearing ended, the board launched into the overview with Mrs Llodra and Mr Hart positioning themselves at the hearing table connected to a projected series of points and graphs tied to key points of the spending plan.

Touting a “significant increase in the degree of collaboration” among town and school staff, she said the combination of efforts from all involved will contribute to the success of the best-case proposal.

“The costs of the town will be best managed together,” she added.

Moving into the main presentation, Mrs Llodra explained the meaning of “status quo” in regard to the overall budget — pledging to continue existing programs, while individually listing the cost of every new aspect in the proposal to be considered separately.

“We believe this approach provides a better tool for analyzing what this budget means,” Mrs Llodra said. The “common vision is to maintain the level and quality of services...and continued respect for the taxpayer.”

Mrs Llodra reviewed that almost 28 percent of the budget incorporates shared costs like medical benefits and debt service. Most of the collaboration was focused on managing those shared costs. She said 22 percent of the budget is dedicated to municipal concerns exclusively, with 56 percent dedicated for education services.

Finance Director Robert Tait outlined budget costs versus revenues, and focused on his projected revenues that best reflected Governor Dannel Malloy’s budget proposal at the state level.

“When revenues fall like that, you make up the revenues with taxes,” Mr Tait said. He then explained why in the previous budget the town amended the budget in process. “Where we kept our expenses stable, we expected the tax increase not to go up as much, but it went up higher than we thought because revenues were down,” Mr Tait explained.

Following the finance director’s overview of anticipated nontax revenues, Mr Hart then reviewed the common costs shared in the budget, including energy, pension, insurance, debt, and medical.

“In each of these areas we’ve had an effort to mitigate cost inflation,” Mr Hart said.

Mrs Llodra detailed the 0.3 percent increase in anticipated medical costs between the current and proposed overall budget, and the total increase in the cost of bonding. The overall impact of debt service is down by $6,000 on the municipal side in the 2011 proposal, while debt tied to bonding for school district projects will increase about $600,000.

Mr Hart showed that while the current year energy costs have remained flat, there was an anticipated overall increase in shared energy use between the town and district from $3,827,000 to $3,833,000.

On the issue of increases, Mr Hart noted that a 1.9 percent bump in average salaries districtwide constitutes 40 percent of the overall requested increase in the school budget; benefit increases represent an additional 28 percent of the request; and special education increases equaling 18 percent of the request.

Mrs Llodra noted that major cost centers on the town side, and reviewed the incremental increases in proposed for the Economic Development and Energy Commissions.

In closing, Mrs Llodra summed up the overall increases as predominantly nondiscretionary costs. The overall increase of $1,008,276 being requested were broken down further by specific categories, noting the $390,539 in added debt service would be to fund the final phase costs of the high school addition; money being allocated to the capital nonrecurring fund for highway and fire department apparatus and the next revaluation; a point-by-point breakdown of public works, public safety, pension and benefit costs.

The Board of Finance then had the opportunity to ask questions of representatives of the police and public works department on specific points in the budget. Finance Vice Chairman James Gaston had specific questions about funds requested for police vehicles, cameras, and overtime costs tied to a reduction in the minimum staffing standard for the local police force.

The finance board was scheduled to begin working on the education side of the proposal Thursday, February 24, after The Bee went to press. Find updates following that meeting, as well as video highlights and a full audio transcript and collateral documents from the Llodra and Hart presentation at newtownbee.com.