Council Told Of The

Human Cost Of The Budget

By Dottie Evans

The 12 members of the Legislative Council came out in full force Wednesday night to begin reviewing Newtown’s proposed 2003–2004 town/school budget in the public meeting room at the Cyrenius Booth Library.

The council has scheduled a public hearing on the budget for Wednesday, March 26, at 7:30 pm, in the Reed Intermediate School, and they are expected to vote on the budget at their April 2 meeting. Final deadline for the budget package is April 9.

 The total $80.7 million package has already passed through the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance and reductions totaling $1,050,000 were made. Now it is the council’s turn to examine the numbers and decide whether further reductions are justified, whether to leave the budget alone, or whether they should restore areas already cut.

 As it was, they barely had time to open their thick binders filled with line item summaries before they heard from one Newtown resident whose story reflected today’s economic realities.

“My name is Ron Siwik and I live at 2 Green Knolls Lane. I’ve lived in my house since before 1970, and I just want to say that in 1995, my assessment was right on the money.

“But this last one [October, 2002] went up 96 percent. Figuring on a mill rate of 24, my taxes are going to go up 47 percent. Even with senior assistance, I would still be paying ten percent more. I think you are going to find that a whole lot of people are in this group.

“It’s an exciting time in Newtown, with a new school, plans for a new town hall and Fairfield Hills. But something’s got to give,” Mr Siwik said. He added that he does consider his home an investment because he does not want to move.

“That’s my home. To sell it and buy another one in Newtown, I’d have to pay the same!

“I pray that you think about this,” He added. “When someone says the school board is ‘devastated’ [by the proposed cuts], I say, ‘What about what’s happening to us?’”

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal spent several minutes summarizing the revaluation process for the council members, explaining why the reassessment was having a greater impact on owners of smaller homes.

A major factor, Mr Rosenthal said, has been the increasing shift in the tax burden toward the residential side as opposed to the commercial side.

In 2001, homeowners were asked to bear 77.8 percent of total taxes, and in 2002 they had to fund 83.7 percent. In 2003, the burden for the residential side will be more than 90 percent.

Council member Amy Dent asked, “How is the public going to realize that there is not much we can do to help these people? That budget cuts won’t greatly affect the bottom line?”

They would have to read the newspapers and attend the public hearings, Mr Rosenthal said.

Presenting another point of view, parent Wendy Suckow of Old Gate Lane spoke on behalf of her son, who is autistic and enrolled in the NAP program now at Hawley School. Educators hope to move those children to Middle Gate alongside the PROBE program for children with special needs, but this cannot be accomplished if further funds are cut.

“Please do not make any more cuts,” Mrs Suckow said, adding “there would be no end to the benefit of those two groups being housed together.”

Board of Finance member Mike Portnoy gave a brief summary of the decision to reduce certain line items in the town budget and answered questions by the council members.

For more than an hour, Superintendent of Newtown Schools Evan Pitkoff spoke to the council about the school budget and answered questions. He was followed by School Board Chairman Elaine McClure who illustrated the effect of possible budget cuts on taxes, using a slide illustrating the fact that revaluation would have a much greater impact than the proposed budget cuts.

“People move here for the schools, and we’re suffering from our own success,” Dr Pitkoff concluded.

“We’ve had a history of cost-effective education and we maintain this is a lean budget with no new programs.”

There was actually some good news that Dr Pitkoff wanted to share about the education budget.

“Yesterday [Tuesday], we were able to lock in a [cost-of-fuel] rate of 87 cents per gallon for next year.”

According to Newtown Schools Director of Business Ron Bienkowski, they had budgeted for 90 cents but a few weeks ago were looking at prices rising above a dollar.

“It might be prewar jitters, we don’t know, but now we’re going to be able to live within our original projection,” Dr Pitkoff said.

He reiterated the list of fixed costs over which the system has no control, including contractual increases, medical and special education increases, and emergency repairs, as well as the annualization of the new Reed Intermediate School and accommodating an estimated 171 new students into the system next year.

“When I first came here, I asked what you want most to preserve about the Newtown school system,” Dr Pitkoff told the Legislative Council.

“You mentioned four most important areas –– quality of education, class size, keeping a sense of community so that each child feels he or she is important, and maintaining the facilities. We feel that the proposed cut of $400,000 from the school budget will have a significant impact on these values. Please reverse the decision,” Dr Pitkoff concluded.

Looking at the dilemma facing the Legislative Council, two-term member William Meyer said Thursday morning that he had been living in Newtown 35 years and “actually, it’s a lot calmer now than it used to be,” when the town’s rapid rate of growth was just beginning.

“But it’s never easy,” Mr Meyer said.

“People like Mr Siwik who are retired are hurting. Even the teachers are only getting a 3.6 percent raise. The reality is, we have to support education, and I’m all for education. But we have to rein it in right now. We’ll work it out, we always do.”