Open Space Initiative Endorsed––

Council Cuts $1 Million From Spending Plan

By Dottie Evans

The Legislative Council struggled Wednesday night to reach a consensus on where further budget cuts should fall –– and how big those cuts should be. The process was slow and painful, and the decisions were agonizing.

For nearly three hours, heated debate was countered by compromise as the 12 members struggled to make sense of the numbers and respond to a clear mandate by the voters Tuesday that the proposed $80.7 million package was simply not acceptable.

Council member Will Rodgers expressed the urgency to make further reductions felt by all.

“I’m not going to presume that the voters misunderstood anything. We can’t ignore a No-vote of that magnitude,” he said, referring to the 2,494 to 1,756 referendum results of the day before that resulted in the budget’s defeat in the first round.

When all was said and done, the council voted 7 to 5 to reduce the budget by $1 million.

 This figure included a substantial, and many would say critically damaging, reduction to the education budget of $775,000; removal of $25,000 from the Parks and Recreation budget for the proposed new skateboard facility; and removal of $200,000 from the open space line item reserve account in the selectmen’s budget.

“We should not, in this budget climate and tough economy, be endorsing anything new,” said Amy Dent of the skateboard park proposal, though First Selectman Herb Rosenthal pointed out that it had been on the Parks and Recreation long-term plans for several years, and that parents were organizing to raise matching funds.

“The $25,000 would have been for site work only,” Mr Rosenthal said, “since the equipment actually used by skateboarders is portable and can be reassembled in another place.”

Nevertheless, the council was nearly unanimous, voting 11 to 1 to remove funding for the skate park proposal from the 2003–2004 budget package.

A Far-Reaching Open Space Initiative

The second cut to the town side of the budget was much a much larger one, but it may have prepared the way for what Board of Finance Chairman John Kortze called a “fundamental, structural change” in the way Newtown controls growth and ultimately manages its future so that a budget crisis similar to the current one does not happen again.

By a majority of 11 to 1, the council voted to cut the line item account for open space of $200,000 from the town side of the budget. At the same time, the members made a verbal agreement that this would be the first step in a far-reaching new initiative to acquire land that would otherwise be developed, and to set aside “significant dollars” to the tune of $10 to $20 million through a future bond issue to ensure that money for open space would become available.

Mr Kortze had introduced this idea during an earlier public comment portion of the meeting.

“I’m thinking about how we should go forward from here,” he said, “how we should approach what’s going on right now [with the budget and issues of paying for growth in the town].

“We need to look at the budget process itself. We need to target specific areas in town for commercial development, and we need larger financial exposure to open space. I’m saying between $5 and $10 million. As a board, you can have a direct impact on growth by doing that. In dollars, we can equate that to savings, as in what it would mean if 100 acres were developed,” and there would be an increase in demand for services as well as the added educational burden.

“Equate it to a long-term plan. That’s what the town is asking for,” Mr Kortze said.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said he would support the cut of open space funds if the Legislative Council and the Finance Board would later follow up with a large bond issue to conserve open space by purchase of properties as they became available.

“Trumbull and Ridgefield are already doing this to the tune of $10 to $20 million,” he added.

Council member Amy Dent agreed that “we need serious dollars for open space and this issue [uncontrolled growth] is not going to go away.”

Education Budget Suffers Worst Cut

The hardest won vote was the last –– the decision to cut $775,000 from the education budget in addition to the $400,000 that had already been cut several weeks ago by the Board of Finance.

It came after several amendments to an original proposed cut of $1.1 million from the education budget were suggested, and despite its size, it was clearly a compromise between the $500,000 cut that the board nearly made two weeks ago and the original motion.

“I think we’ve got to give the people their due,” said Mrs Dent though she and others were loath to make such a deep cut into the schools’ proposal.

“I think this number will pass because they want a substantial cut. It’s a compromise. If we go any deeper we risk having it go down for opposite reasons –– because people think the cuts are too severe. We would be venturing into unknown territory,” she said.

At the beginning of the meeting, Newtown Superintendent of Schools Evan Pitkoff had acknowledged that the defeat Tuesday was “a setback.”

“But even those critical of the budget had good things to say about the schools in this town. We’ve got 171 new students coming into the system this fall, and 105 of them will be entering the high school, where it is more expensive to educate them,” he said.

While it costs the town approximately $7,000 per pupil to educate children in grades K–8, it costs approximately $9,000 per pupil in the high school, due to the need for more course choices and other factors.

Finally, Dr Pitkoff pleaded with the council to “find the balance” and consider the long-term effects of whatever cuts they approved.

At the end of the evening, a $775,000 cut may not have looked like a compromise but it was, given the numbers that had been suggested.

When the final vote was taken, the council voted to cut $775,000 by 7 to 5.

Members in favor of the motion were Joe Borst, Amy Dent, Joe Hemingway, Mike Iassogna, Bill Meyer, Francis Pennarola, and Chairman Don Studley.

Members Peggy Baiad, Joe DiCandido, Tim Holian, Will Rodgers, and Brian White opposed the motion, and looking at previous votes, it can only be presumed that they would have favored greater cuts.

School Board Chairman Elaine McClure seemed resigned at the outcome, but commented following the vote that Newtown schools would “lose either way.”

“We lose if this budget passes, but we really lose big time if it goes down again. It just has to pass this time.”