To the Editor:

It’s Borough budget time again. As of April 9, our Borough had a cash surplus of $691,586.39 — an increase of $200,000 from same time last year.

The Borough’s proposed budget fails to disclose its cash surplus. It was explained last year that the $450,000 surplus was for legal fees to contest any “affordable housing” proposal for the Inn property. That signals to any court that the Borough doesn’t want any affordable housing at all (which is directly contrary to State housing policy), but, as now, there was no application pending for such a project. So the cash surplus was then being maintained to cover possible unidentified expenses.

The Borough Charter provides authority only to levy taxes for budgeted expenses for one year at a time — and nothing more. Under its charter, it cannot carry a surplus from year to year.

The State came to the rescue in 1949 by way of Chapter 108 of the Connecticut Statutes authorizing municipalities to create a separate reserve fund to be designated as a “reserve fund for capital and nonrecurring expenses.” In 1960, the Borough created such a fund with that name — to be “operated and administered strictly in accordance with the provisions of said Chapter 108 of the General Statutes...” That is the only vehicle that would allow a municipality to create and fund such a contingency account.

For years, the Borough has maintained a growing cash surplus, co-mingled with its general fund, with no plan for its use. The last Borough audit indicates that there is a plan for its cash. If it exists, it remains undisclosed. The current budget proposal includes a capital improvement line (sidewalks), but not one to be funded as a contingency. The surplus, then, is a fund in search of a purpose.

It might be argued that the cash surplus has been maintained as a “Reserve Fund for Capital and Nonrecurring Expenditures,” but not in accordance with Chapter 108 of the General Statutes or with the resolution it adopted in 1960. Most significantly, the surplus is three times the statutory limit contained in Chapter 108 of the statutes — the amount of the current tax levy — $229,330.00. Anything more, according to our courts, should be applied “in reduction of the rate of tax to be levied for the following year” — to reduce the following year’s taxes.

If the Borough is going to tax in this manner, it ought to at least “get legal” and do what is fair and right. If a true fiscal emergency arises, it has the power to return to the taxpayers for additional funds in a way that puts the specific reason for the request up front so the taxpayers can say “yea” or “nay.”

These are public funds. We should have a say about how they are spent.

Don Mitchell

8 Budd Drive, Newtown         April 25, 2019