Selectmen Send Budget Plan To Council Hearing

By John Voket

Newtown taxpayers who wish to comment publicly to the Legislative Council on the 2009 townwide budget are invited to do so before the panel takes up discussion on the $103.5 million package the following evening. A public hearing on the budget proposal is set for 5:30 pm, Wednesday, March 25, in the Newtown High School lecture hall.

Then, at 7:30 on March 26, the council will take up and could act on a final proposal that will be sent to taxpayers for consideration in late April.

As it stands, the council will receive a proposal representing $103,516,694 — a 0.8 percent increase over what the town and school district was provided in the current fiscal year. That represents $37,335,099 in municipal side spending, and a school district spending proposal totaling $66,181,595.

If approved as is and sent to referendum by the council March 26, taxpayers would face a mill rate of 23.39. A mill represents one dollar in taxation for every $1,000 in assessed property value.

Faced with what was generally agreed upon by most public officials involved in the process as being the most difficult budget year in memory, and with sights set on a zero-tax-increase proposal, the combined work of the Board of Finance and Board of Selectmen came in very close, but still slightly over the current spending plan.

After more than 17 hours of meetings, which included a public hearing, four nights of questioning school and town representatives, as well as a final deliberation session, the finance board voted unanimously to cut $864,970 from the selectmen’s side, and a flat $1 million from the school district side of the proposal March 12.

While selectmen were charged with determining where $200,000 in additional “blanket” reductions would be applied, they chose to also juggle and replace some of the finance board’s targeted cuts with reductions in different areas to affect the same dollar outcome March 16. Selectmen will now have to come before the council to explain and request that body entertain the revised version of the municipal side, versus the reductions specifically outlined by the finance board.

The finance board does not have line-item control over school district budget cuts, and historically, the district does not announce where cuts in its budget proposal will be made until after final taxpayer approval.

By charter, the council has the power to change some line item amounts, and to further reduce, or increase, the proposal.

Finance Board Primes Pension Fund

The two primary additions put back into the selectmen’s budget before the final finance board vote included $250,000 to increase the town pension contribution to reflect declining investment value. An additional $50,000 was added back in to fund the salary of a building department official, which was previously removed.

Mandated townside reductions were made across 13 departments, and included:

*$100,000 from the debt service fund

*$50,000 from the Parks & Recreation line, intended to fund a skate park

*$50,000 from the Highway Department’s winter maintenance line for road salt purchases

*$200,786 from the Police Department, which will translate to eliminating two staff positions, $95,000 from a vehicle purchase line and $25,000 in reduced overtime

*$66,390 from the Highway Department’s payroll, reducing two positions

*$56,220 from Fairfield Hills, which represents the transfer of some administrative duties from a private management company to the town

*$100,000 from the Fire Department line, which represents a delay in refurbishing the Hawleyville tanker truck

*$16,155 (net) from a building maintenance fund

*$13,750 from the Lake Zoar Authority

But after much discussion, and a closed session where personnel actions tied to the budget were deliberated, selectmen emerged with reductions equaling the same bottom line as required by the finance board.

Selectmen’s Changes, Same Result

Both the finance board’s pension and building department salary reinstatement actions came under fire by selectmen. In the end it was determined that a townside contribution to offset pension fund losses should be $150,000, with the school district contributing $100,000 because of a 60/40 split between the town and school pension plan participants.

Selectmen also voted to request the $50,000 to fund a building official position be taken out again, effectively eliminating that job if the motion passes the council.

The Board of Selectmen balked at the idea of immediately reducing funding for the Fairfield Hills management consultant, in favor of the finance board’s suggestion that a combination of town officials and departments pick up the slack for everything from campus security to scheduling general landscaping and paying utility bills.

Saying the finance board was presented with inaccurate information regarding the mileage of police cars due to be retired, selectmen moved to restore $95,000 in that budget line and $25,000 to a police overtime account. In turn, they supported a reduction in sworn police personnel by two positions, saving $80,786.

Another $20,000 was removed for debt service on borrowing for replacement of a 1988 road grader for the highway department. And an additional $100,000 was trimmed from the actual budget line for the purchase by delaying the full appropriation for the $260,000 machine into the 2010 fiscal cycle.

The latter represents the largest single reduction contributing to the additional blanket reduction of $200,000 the Board of Finance requested. Layoffs of one police officer and one highway department worker that were originally going to be delayed until October 2009 will now go into effect July 1, saving almost $42,000.

Selectmen reduced the FICA contribution under the Social Security budget line by $37,107, and the townside health insurance line by $15,360.

Modest cuts of $2,161 and $3,500 were made to the emergency dispatcher overtime account and the town clerk’s election fund to fulfill the $200,000 reduction request.

While selectmen differed in where they wanted to see the reductions, in the end finance board Chairman John Kortze told The Newtown Bee Tuesday that overall, his board would be more concerned about selectmen retaining the net amount of reductions versus the specific lines from which the finance board made its March 12 reductions.

“I don’t have a problem if the council wants to do it that way; my concern is the bottom line,” Mr Kortze said.