Council’s Fact-Finding Session Hears Budget Pleas

By Dottie Evans

Wednesday night’s Legislative Council hearing on the 2004-05 combined town and education $84.4 million budget proposal was an unusual one right from the start.

To begin with, an error in the published announcement caused the hearing to be convened twice, first at the Booth Library and then in the Reed Intermediate School, where it stayed for the duration well past 10 pm as the 12 council members gathered information for their own deliberations and decisions to come Wednesday, April 14.

Pleas for restoration of funds cut by the Board of Finance were made by several members of the Booth Library Board of Directors, and by Superintendent of Schools Evan Pitkoff along with Board of Education Chairman Elaine McClure, and several board members.

Conspicuously absent were the school parents. In another unusual turn of events, they stayed away at the request of Save Our Schools, which asked parents to remain home and allow the administrators and board members to present the case in a calm and reasoned fashion.

While First Selectman Herb Rosenthal spoke in favor of the town budget as expected, and especially for restoration of funds for the three needed police vehicles, he also argued for the education side, asking for restoration of the $250,000 cut by the Board of Finance.

“As a past-time, 14-year member of the Board of Education and a four-year Board of Education chairman, I know how important it is to support our schools,” Mr Rosenthal said.

“The overwhelming number of comments that I have received and that I have heard at public hearing and budget meetings have been opposed to further reductions. I believe that education, along with public health and safety needs, are the most important functions of government.”

School board member Andrew Buzzi asked the council to present the budget as proposed by the board to the taxpayers intact so “they would have the opportunity to choose.”

While fighting for restoration of the $250,000, School Board Chairman Elaine McClure alerted the council to an unexpected problem that has arisen since the proposal was drafted.

“We see a loss of $165,000 [in addition to the $250,000] which we didn’t know about because of a State Board of Education 16 percent cut in Excess Cost Grant Revenues for special education,” Ms McClure said.

She assured the council that “this year, we’ve woken them up.”

“It won’t take three times to pass a budget,” she promised, mentioning several drastic measures taken as a result of the 2003-04 budget cuts. These included a change from a four-tier to a three-tier bus schedule, loss of fourth grade orchestra, installation of school activity fees, and larger class sizes especially at the high school.

Library Board Asks For Restoration Of $50,000

Phillip Kotch, president of the Booth Library Board of Trustees, spoke in the hopes that while the council might decide to retain the Board of Selectmen’s “reasoned” cut of $80,000, it should overturn the Board of Finance’s additional cut of $50,000.

“The further slash…seems ill-advised and will be crippling. Adding this cut to the selectman’s decision gives us a drastic reduction of $130,000. The Booth Library… is not a static organization,” Dr Kotch said.

He noted that Newtown’s growing population and increased patronage, as well as expansion in programs and activity in the children’s and youth departments, have put additional pressure on staff, facilities, and infrastructure.

“We are open seven days a week for a total of 56 hours. Many organizations find our meeting rooms convenient and comfortable places to conduct their business,” he added.

Board member Gordon Williams said, “You might think we have deep pockets because of the Friends group, but they don’t give us everything we want.”

Paula Stefan, another library board member, asked the council to “think of the aesthetics. We have a beautiful library that imparts knowledge and wisdom. The town is growing intellectually and culturally. Don’t let this treasure go sinking.”