Vote Set April 24 –

Council Approves A $72.9 Million Budget

By Steve Bigham

The Legislative Council Wednesday approved a final budget of $72.9 million for the 2001-2002 fiscal year. The spending package is up $6 million over the current year’s budget and, if approved, will raise taxes by more than 7 percent or 2.3 mills (from 29.5 to 31.8 mills).

The budget heads to a referendum April 24.

As it now stands, a home assessed at $175,000 would see its taxes jump from $5,163 to $5,565 – a $402 increase. But don’t expect to see this kind of increase every year. As council members have pointed out, this is a special year, particularly with the funding needs brought on by the proposed construction of the 5/6 school and purchase of Fairfield Hills. These two projects, although not yet approved, will increase debt service from $7 million to $8.2 million. The added money will be used to pay the first installment of a 20-year bonding issue for the two capital projects.

The biggest portion of the town spending, $42.4 million, will go to fund the Board of Education. That budget represents a 7.5 percent increase over the current budget. School leaders had sought a somewhat larger budget, but were required to make $800,000 in cuts in order to bring it within the council’s 7.5 percent guideline.

The remainder of the budget, $30.2 million, will go to fund town services and debt service. The town portion of the budget prepared by the Board of Selectmen is up 7 percent, which is mainly due to the debt service increase mentioned above.

A year ago, Legislative Council Chairman Pierre Rochman spoke out against the proposed budget, which he felt was too high, but had been approved by the council anyway. At the time, he urged voters to vote against the budget and they responded in kind. This year, the budget is up once again, but Mr Rochman is now urging passage of the budget.

“Considering the growth we’ve seen in town the last bunch of years, considering this budget accommodates the 5/6 school and the possible purchase of Fairfield Hills and some municipal space needs, in view of all that, a 7.8 percent increase is really quite conservative. I was afraid when it all started that we would be looking at something like a 10 percent increase, and I probably would have argued for it,” Mr Rochman said.

By deducting inflation, the town is looking at a four percent increase, he noted, adding that the increase is not much when you consider all that the town is getting.

Council members are also telling residents that if the budget is defeated in a town vote, they may have to consider delaying the construction of the school and/or take the Fairfield Hills purchase out of the plans.

“I don’t think those are reasonable options. Defeating the budget could have some pretty catastrophic implications,” Mr Rochman said. “If people think that by defeating the budget, we may take money out for Fairfield Hills and that would reduce the mill rate, that would be incorrect thinking because we still have municipal space needs, police, fire, Parks & Recreation, etc.”

This week, this council did add $65,000 of unanticipated state aid from the current Pequot/Mohegan casino grant. Governor John Rowland’s budget had called for Newtown to receive $527,234. However, that figure has been raised to $592,685.

Also, the council, upon the recommendation of the Board of Selectmen, also added money to the budget for possible revenue sharing funds that may or may not come out of Hartford. In the current year, the town received $251,567 in revenue sharing funds. No money was proposed this year. However, state comptroller Nancy Wyman has proposed increasing revenue sharing by about 20 percent, which would mean Newtown could get as much as $303,360.

In response, the council increased the revenue side of the budget by $300,000 and also increased the expenditure side by increasing the reserve fund for capital and non-recurring expenditures by $300,000. This will not impact the mill rate, and once received, the revenue can be used to fund capital projects within or outside the proposed budget, First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said.