Finance Bd. Trims Nearly $1.5Million, Sends Budget To Council

By John Voket

At a special meeting March 3, the Board of Finance delivered a $105 million budget proposal to the council after taking cuts totaling $1.49 million between the school district and the general government following nearly two hours of deliberations.

The package, if approved as presented to the Legislative Council, would provide a 23.2 mill taxation rate for the 2008-2009 fiscal year, and increase the overall budget by $5,585,567 over the current year. According to the assessor’s office, the current tax rate is 28.1mills for the October 2006 Grand List , which results in the payment of $28.10 for each $1,000 of a taxable property’s assessed value.

This year’s revaluation has caused about one-third of local property owner’s assessed values to increase, and about one-third to drop, but typically revaluations also cause mill rates to drop as well, according to Assessor Tom DeNoto.

The proposed budget increase, as it stands going into the next round of deliberations, is 5.29 percent.

Among several speakers at the public hearing, Desiree Galassi requested the finance board consider the school district’s need to complete technology upgrades at two elementary schools, and the overall mission to support new technology.

“This is not a want, this is a need,” Ms Galassi said, adding that parents and supporters who already raised more than $10,000 to supplement technology purchases are “double-dipping.”

“These parents are paying their taxes, and paying for equipment,” she said.

Middle school teacher and Newtown resident Donald Ramsey thanked the finance panel for being “good stewards of the public’s money,” before encouraging the officials to leave the school district budget intact as presented.

“There’s no waste in this budget,” Mr Ramsey said. “Our dedicated administrators and teachers are working more with less resources. There’s not any room to cut.”

Before deliberations began, school district Business Manager Ronald Bienkowski told the finance board that he was able to develop an additional $121,797 in revenue to add to the proposed budget package.

Finance representative Michael Portnoy took the lead for much of the evening, directing prepared questions to Police Chief Michael Kehoe and Public Works Director Fred Hurley. Mr Portnoy pointedly asked each department head how their respective departments would function if faced with a five to ten percent reduction in staff.

Mr Hurley echoed similar sentiments from the police chief, saying: “We’ll never tell you we won’t get the job done.” The highway department manager did take a few moments to clarify that, according to his research, Newtown crews operating on jobs like snow plowing put in among the longest shifts in the state.

He also reminded the finance board about the town’s long-range road and bridge maintenance program lags further behind its goals every year major cuts are derived from the highway department budget.

“Our original 20-year plan to fully renovate roads and bridges will now take 30 years,” Mr Hurley said.

Chief Kehoe said his department’s stepped-up commitment to an aggressive road and traffic enforcement is dependent on keeping a minimum number of front line patrol officers on the road at all times.

He suggested a ten percent reduction in staff would be “devastating,” preventing the delivery of services as promised.

Pointing out student population declines at the elementary level, Mr Portnoy then asked School Superintendent Janet Robinson, “When do we decrease staff?”

Dr Robinson said she was “looking at staffing,” and that the district already decreased elementary teaching staff at Hawley School in response to a drop in student numbers there. She said the district also has ongoing concerns about improving test scores for reading and writing at the elementary levels, which would justify keeping class sizes at 18 or below.

Finance member Joseph Kearney asked Parks and Recreation Director Barbara Kasbarian why contracted services in her budget escalated from $272,000 to $307,000 in the current proposal.

Ms Kasbarian said that there is a ten percent average increase in all contract services annually, which was compounded this year by increasing fuel and other related expenses.

Mr Portnoy them moved a reduction in the overall budget proposal by $1,936,000 through a combination of revenue and spending adjustments. Referring to the proposal as presented to the finance board, Mr Portnoy said, “I think a seven percent increase in today’s times is beyond what taxpayers would consider fair.”

In the end, the finance board incorporated numerous aspects of Mr Portnoy’s proposed cuts in a slightly less conservative cut. The final approved adjustment took $900,000 from the school district and $600,000 from the general government budget.

The numbers moved to the council are as follows:

Board of Selectmen proposed budget: $40,027,988 cut to $39,433,400

School district proposed budget: $66,931,044 cut to $66,031,044

Proposed budget revenues : Town, $11,878,459; School district, $4,667,129

Amount to be raised by taxation: $88,918,856

With a recent change at the council level, each subcommittee with jurisdiction over various town departments will begin the process of reviewing the respective areas of the latest budget proposal, bringing in applicable department heads when deemed necessary. The council’s education subcommittee began meeting Thursday, March 6, after The Bee went to press.

That subcommittee has scheduled further meetings March 10 and 20 at 7 pm in the Edmond Town Hall lower courtroom. The council’s public safety committee is scheduled to meet March 19 at 6 pm at the Booth Library.

The administrative subcommittee is set to meet March 10 and 18 at 7:30 pm in the Mary Hawley Room at Edmond Town Hall. According to Finance subcommittee chair Joseph DiCandido, his panel will schedule at least one meeting in the coming weeks.