Date: Fri 19-Feb-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

council-budget-grand-list

Full Text:

Grand List Is Up, But So Is The Budget

BY STEVE BIGHAM

There was both good news and bad news to report at Wednesday night's meeting

of the Legislative Council.

The good news: the town's grand list had grown by $75.7 million -- a

pleasantly surprising jump of 4.61 percent. The grand list is a key figure on

the revenue side and annually plays a role in offsetting the town's increasing

budget requests.

The bad news: big budget cuts are expected. The proposed 1999-2000 budget

appears to be up eight or nine percent over the existing spending plan. If a

referendum were to be held today, taxpayers would be voting on a tax rate

increase of 2.25 mills, or $3.66 million.

Legislative Council members understand, however, that few residents would go

along with that kind of jump, so cuts are inevitable. It will be the job of

the council to decide where to make those cuts in the coming weeks.

Things looked promising just two weeks ago when the Board of Selectmen

announced its budget had actually gone down by $1 million. But the budget is

still in a fluid state. This week, the council's finance committee opted to

use only a third of its $3.5 million surplus to offset taxes. The remainder

will be kept in reserve.

We have become too dependent on that money to keep costs down, finance

committee chairman John Kortze told the full council. We keep raising the bar

and that surplus won't be there forever.

"The grand list was up nine percent in the last two years alone. We can not

anticipate that number always being there. Sooner of later we'll have to make

up that gap," he said.

The finance committee also opted to raise the Board of Education's budget an

additional $400,000 to cover the cost of capital projects at Newtown Middle

School and Middle Gate School. That raises the school board's budget increase

from $3.38 million to $3.8 million -- more than 11 percent overall.

Mr Kortze said the council did all it could a year ago to give town

departments "almost everything" with only a modest increase in taxes. That

does not seem possible this year.

The problem is simple, Mr Kortze said, the Board of Education's budget has

jumped by 20 percent in just the past two years alone. And that increase does

not include the anticipated debt service from the school board's proposed

school for grades five and six.

"Our pencils need to be sharpened because the growth and requirements of the

Legislative Council are not in sync with the town's revenue side," Mr Kortze

said.

Finance Committee member Melissa Pilchard has also suggested the council add

$500,000 to the selectmen's budget for contingencies. She said the town has

numerous legal cases pending, including assessment appeals. She wants the town

to plan ahead with funding. Other members seemed reluctant. The issue is

expected to be discussed further as budget deliberations move along.