Budget Estimate Shows

Two Mill Tax Hike

By John Voket

At press time Thursday morning, town finance director Benjamin Spragg predicted the 2006-2007 municipal budget could top off at more than $97.4 million, reflecting a two mill property tax increase in the coming fiscal year.

A mill equals one dollar in taxes for every thousand dollars in personal property.

His prediction is subject to change, however, because Thursday evening, after The Bee goes to press, the Board of Education was scheduled to complete deliberations and exact possible cuts to the superintendent’s proposed $62 million budget.

Any downward adjustments to that figure would correspond to decreasing the mill rate hike.

“Right now the municipal side of the budget is ready to go to the Board of Finance,” Mr Spragg said. “And the Board of Ed also has to present their budget to the finance board next week.”

If the school board is unable to finalize its budget’s bottom line by Thursday, an additional special budget meeting may be required Friday or before the finance board meets next Monday.

Mr Spragg said the town side of the budget, which was passed by Selectmen last Tuesday, represents 36 percent of the total budget as it stood Thursday morning. The final budget proposed by the selectmen stands at $35.4 million.

While First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal and Selectman William Brimmer, Jr, ran through a number of line items for points of financial minutia, they could not seem to find even the comparatively few dollars that would have leveled the municipal proposal out at a seven percent increase. The current proposal going to the finance board stands at 7.1 percent.

Selectman Joseph Bojnowski was unable to attend the final budget session because he was called away on a pressing business matter out of state.

Among the few items the selectmen found to trim in an already lean budget proposal were a $28,750 cut that was allocated to finance a new town hall phone system.

“Since we’re probably going to be relocating to a new town hall in the next year or two, we’ll see if we can just get by with the system we have,” Mr Rosenthal said.

Selectmen found another $18,000 to cut from the police department’s request for what Mr Rosenthal called the “New World Interface” computer software. He said he expected to be able to pay for that from a state or federal grant, so it could be dropped from the operating budget.

Since the selectmen previously ruled out adding a staff member to the economic development department, they also cut the $3,650 budgeted for a desk, chair, and computer for that hire.

In another personnel-related move, the selectmen decided to fund only half a year of salary for a new full-time person in the newly created technology department that would oversee the entire municipal computer and IT network.

“We’ve been purchasing these services from the Board of Ed,” Mr Rosenthal said. “But now we’re creating a subdepartment to handle the municipal systems.”

The salary cut means the new full-time person will start in January 2007 instead of July 2006.

In other police-related cuts, Mr Rosenthal said after discussing the issue with Chief Michael Kehoe, he was cutting two Crown Victoria cruisers from the unprecedented six-car request. That adjustment added up to another $54,000 drop.

Another request for high band two-way radios for the emergency services department would be financed through a grant, so that line item for $4,533 was cut as well.

Mr Spragg was able to find a way to reduce debt service by $63,000 and adjustments to personnel increases in the building and land use departments added another $2,066 cut.

In the final move, which Mr Rosenthal said “pains me a lot,” the selectmen reduced $20,000 from the overlay line and $50,000 from the capital roads lines of the highway department proposal.

The final number when all was said and done came out to $35,433,352, a 7.15 percent increase over the current budget year. In the coming weeks, the Board of Finance and Legislative Council can make further adjustments or restorations to both the municipal and education sides of the budget proposals.