Furrier, Murray, Gaston Unveil Plans To Trim Tax Burden

By John Voket

Independent Party of Newtown First Selectman Candidate William Furrier and his running mate Po Murray are pledging to reduce town-side spending by five percent over two years if elected this November, while James Gaston, the Democratic candidate for Board of Selectmen, has an “objective” to hold the line, committing to a zero percent town-side budget increase, presumably in the 2012-13 budget cycle.

“It is a realistic, reasonable, and an achievable goal,” the IPN candidates said after announcing their ambitious campaign initiative last week.

“Spending less money for our town services is a choice that a community can make and we want the voters to be able to have that choice,” the IPN candidates stated. “Our plan is to reduce the town side real spending, which includes $28 million in the current approved town budget combined with currently planned town side capital spending.”

Mr Furrier, a current selectman, and Ms Murray, a former council representative, say they will not include existing debt service in the items that they pledge to reduce because that represents spending already incurred. Instead, they will use what the candidates call a “Track, Score and Report” accounting method to conduct a comprehensive critical analysis of all departmental spending budgets to determine the best areas to cut. 

“A $28 million town spending budget contains many expenditures that need to be closely scrutinized,” the IPN candidates stated. “We do not believe this has been done sufficiently to date. Where possible, we aim to improve efficiency so that we can capture savings without adversely affecting perceived services. But first, we need to start keeping score of how we are doing against recognized benchmarks — and that is the purpose of  Track, Score and Report.” 

Mr Furrier and Ms Murray say they are still formulating some of the finer details of their plan, because there are many areas to focus on in the budget. 

“For example, the public works spending has increased significantly over the last two years,” the candidates stated in an e-mailed response to questions about their proposal posed by The Bee. “We would like to take a much closer look at among other things, the 82 cars and trucks in our fleet and the 150,000 gallons of fuel we consume driving them. 

“We think that having a better understanding of how these and other items are being used and what they are producing for us will allow us to ask; how can we work differently? Can we spend less and get more for our money?”

They say that their Track, Score and Report system will answer these questions, and show the community how it might reduce spending.

“We believe every line item of the budget requires this kind of critical analysis applied to it,” the IPN candidates concluded. “We believe that it is within our capability to reduce spending by a modest amount and we are offering the voters that choice.”

A Flat Budget

As a member of the Board of Selectmen, Mr Gaston has set his sights on a flat budget in 2012 as one of three immediate goals. He laid out those ideas in a letter to The Bee this week, and has reiterated much of that information on local social networking sites.

“A zero percent increase in the town-side budget should be our objective,” Mr Gaston said.

Acknowledging it will be difficult, the Democratic candidate, who is the current Board of Finance vice chair, noted that the town-side budget already has a two percent increase due to scheduled wage, insurance, and debt service increases.

“The town-side budget is $37 million; a two percent increase is a $750,000 increase,” Mr Gaston states in his letter. “For hypothetical purposes, if the owner-operator bus fiasco of $4 million additional costs is split over two years, half to the BOE and half to the BOS (just for argument sake), then we need another $1 million along with the $750,000 equaling $1.75 million cut.”

Mr Gaston said if the Furrier/Murray reduction in next year’s budget equals 2.5 percent, it would equal another $925,000, or a total of $2,675,000 in cuts.

“Gutting Public Works, Parks and Recreation, the library and Youth Services would still not come close to a $2,675,000 [reduction],” the Democratic candidate stated. “The fund balance is already too low for bonding agencies; to take from there would jeopardize our bond ratings and risk significant debt service increases.”

Among his other ideas, Mr Gaston proposes directing monthly financial reporting of all Fairfield Hills activities to the Board of Finance, as well as the Board of Selectmen.

“This can be done by BOS directive, or charter revision,” Mr Gaston said. “I agree with [Rep] Chris Lyddy, the ordinance/charter as it pertains to Fairfield Hills can be respectfully reviewed, clarified, and improved. The town and BOE report to the BOF and Legislative Council, there is no reason why FFH shouldn’t, too.”

Mr Gaston also supports unifying the town’s Munis and school district’s Phoenix computer systems to account for all work, work time, and work costs shared by the town and the BOE. He said there are may examples of shared work between the town, schools, and FFH.

“We need to know the exact costs to each department. Without this, there is no natural divide between town and education budget funds,” Mr Gaston said. “No matter what one’s opinion about a bifurcated budgets, we can’t move forward with that discussion unless we have the capability to discern the costs.”