‘Perfect Storm’ Brewing––

 Finance Board Addresses Economic Realities

By Dottie Evans

Halfway through Monday night’s Board of Finance meeting, there could be no doubt in the minds of Superintendent of Newtown Schools Evan Pitkoff and other educators and parents present to hear deliberations on the proposed 2003–2004 school budget about which way the wind blew.

Clearly, the barometer was going down.

After scanning the economic horizon, finance board members saw a “Perfect Storm” budget scenario, as described by member Jim Gaston.

“You’ve got a school system with increasing needs and more and more students coming in. You’ve got a terrible economy and a state budget reflecting that economy,” and the state is posed to make huge cuts in aid to schools and municipalities.

“And you have a reval year,” where 80 percent of Newtown homeowners are above the break-even point, meaning their taxes will go up a minimum of 8.7 percent despite the 52 percent increase in the Grand List.

“Where do you draw the line? What are the needs and what are the means?” Mr Gaston asked, holding up pages and pages of handwritten, red-figured line-item numbers.

“Let’s get it on the table, go over the thought processes,” he said as he walked through the numbers, retracing the steps leading to a proposed $50.7 million 2003–2004 Board of Education budget that had gone up a full 10.59 percent over this year’s budget.

The numbers reflected the fact that Newtown schools were facing their own set of fiscal realities –– funding the new Reed Intermediate School, accommodating 171 new students, meeting the needs of a burgeoning population of special education children, fulfilling contractual obligations, paying for higher energy costs and needing to hire 10.7 new teachers.

Then Board of Finance Chairman John Kortze stepped forward to say that he did not dispute the “fantastic job” Newtown schools were doing in educating students and dealing with a residential growth rate that continues to challenge the town in every possible way.

 But as finance chairman, he said he could not bring himself to ask the town to swallow a 10.59 percent school budget increase “when everything around us is going the other way.”

“At some point, reality has to come in. We are not immune. Two out of the last three budgets failed [at referendum] and I can’t see this one passing. I don’t think this is something we should ask the taxpayers to do in this year,” Mr Kortze concluded.

The Impact Of Budget Cuts

Earlier in the evening, Board of Education Chairman Elaine McClure had presented a table showing how possible reductions to the proposed 2003–2004 school budget (under the most likely mill rate of 24.4) would affect tax bills of the average homeowner.

For a home assessed at $150,000, a $200,000 cut in the education budget would mean a savings of $11.19 in taxes. For a home assessed at $500,000, the same cut would mean a savings of $37.29.

Ratcheting up the numbers scale, if a $600,000 cut were made, homes assessed at $150,000 would realize a saving of $33.56 on their taxes and homes assessed at $500,000 would save $111.87.

If $800,000 were cut, a home assessed at $150,000 would save $44.75 and homes assessed at $500,000 would save $149.16.

Finally, if a $1 million were cut, owners of homes assessed at $150,000 would realize a savings of $55.94 and owners of homes assessed at $500,000 would save $186.45.

“This [school budget] is not too high,” Ms McClure insisted, and said she hoped the Board of Finance members would realize from the chart that while “a $400,000 cut would barely affect an individual’s tax bills, it would devastate the schools.”

“For every $100,000 they cut, they only save $10 to $11 dollars per taxpayer. But [to us] that’s a teacher and a half,” Ms McClure said.

Several parents also spoke against reducing the education budget by any amount.

“Please do not make any more cuts on a very tight budget,” asked Amy Cameron of Huntingtown Road, who moved to Newtown two-and-a-half years ago.

“Send on this budget as it is. We will fight for it,” promised Gene Vetrano, who represented the Support Our Schools group.

In a call for a maneuver to head off future expansion in the school population, Bill Sheluck said, “The town needs to transfer funds to open space,” as soon as possible.

But as the evening wore in, it became obvious that finance board members were not going to let the school budget pass unscathed before sending it on to the legislators.

“If we want to have an impact on this budget, it’s going to be sizable,” said Mr Kortze.

Look at the history, added Mr Gaston.

“Last year’s school budget was up [eight percent]. This exceeds what we’ve done in the past.”