Newtown

Adds Up State Aid Losses

By Jan Howard

When Gov John Rowland and the General Assembly finally agreed on a new state budget recently, state aid to towns took a hit.

Under the new state budget, Newtown will receive $6,089,053 in state grants, $247,218 less than the $6,336,271 budgeted for 2003–04.

The amount the town budgeted for Town Aid Roads and Public School Transportation remain the same under the new state budget, at $91,933 and $172,863 respectively. There were, however, reductions from the budgeted amounts in the following grants: Pequot/Mohegan grant, from $365,114 to $310,347, a reduction of $54,767; Payment in Lieu of Taxes for State Owned Property, from $1,873,093 to $1,739,176, a reduction of $133,917; Education Cost Sharing, from $3,814,698 to $3,760,562, a reduction of $54,136 under the current funding formula; and Non-Public School Transportation, from $18,570 to $14,172, a reduction of $4,398.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said the amount received from education cost sharing could change if the state were to change the funding formula.

However, because the town did not include in its budget an increase in the town clerk’s real estate conveyance tax, funds generated through that one-time revenue source should offset the loss in state aid, Mr Rosenthal said.

That money would have been added to surplus for a one-time purchase, he said. However, he noted, “We won’t have that money.”