The nine Newtown residents who took time to participate in a February 16 Board of Finance hearing on the proposed town and school district budget each requested the board make no further reductions, particularly to the school request, and to send the spending plan to voters as proposed by the Boards of Selectmen and Education.

Selectmen have proposed a $41,251,019 municipal budget - a $733,705 or 1.8 percent increase - which also carries town debt service for capital borrowing on all town and school projects. That proposed debt service cost in next year's spending plan is $9,125,474, a decline of almost $200,000 from the current year.

The school district is requesting $75,120,605 - a 1.98 percent increase. If no reductions are made by either the finance board or Legislative Council, taxpayers will be called to weigh in on a $116,371,624 spending plan at a town-wide referendum on Tuesday, April 25.

Kicking off the finance board hearing, Lynn Edwards asked the finance board and First Selectman Pat Llodra, who was attending, to ensure e-mail accessibility to local elected officials was enabled on the new town website at least throughout budget season.

That said, she transitioned to her support for the budget, asking finance officials to trust the decisions of school board members.

"The budget maintains current quality and minimal enhancements," Ms Edwards said, adding that she was grateful the school board added back social workers that were at risk to be lost due to grants expiration. She also supported added funds for a grant writer.

At the same time, she told finance officials that reductions in state aid were far from predictable, and that Governor Dannel Malloy's proposed state budget should not factor into Newtown budget discussions.

"In the real world schools need proper funding ... not just to survive, but to thrive," Ms Edwards said. "Let the voters decide."

Karen Holden of Sandy Hook reiterated support for the addition of funds to underwrite social workers that were facing budget cuts. She praised the school board and Superintendent Joseph V. Erardi, Jr and his district staff for doing "marvelous things."

"This year's special education budget is much lower," she said, "and keeps students in district instead of being out-placed." Ms Holden noted that most of the district's requested increase is devoted to salary and contractual commitments, and that "teachers and staff are remarkable and doing a lot with very little."

Jordana Bloom told the finance board she was "impressed with the efforts all the boards put in," and asked the finance board to support the district budget as proposed.

"It's important for the town, property values, and the education of our students," she said.

Dorrie Bertsche said she trusts the school board, and requested that finance officials "don't take money from our schools.

"We are below (the average rate of) per pupil spending," Ms Bertsche said, "this has a direct relationship over our property values."

Shelly Northrup said she decided to come and speak publicly for the first time, saying her family chose to relocate to Newtown 20 years ago for the school system.

Now that her children have grown, she admitted to having "no more skin in the game and I still want to invest in schools so my property values remain strong."

Julia Conlon sad she thinks the school budget is too lean and short on programs, "but I understand we want to be frugal when it comes to tax increases."

She told finance officials that it was, "immensely frustrating to see the work the Board of Education and superintendent do to craft a budget... (being) cut by another board."

Kinga Walsh called the district proposal "lean and mean."

"I don't want to see services cut," she said, adding that there is little that can be done locally to control state budget actions," but we can't live in fear. Let voters decide and be positive."

Middle School educator and resident Jason Zetoff spoke in favor of district budget, saying it would help him "continue to provide my students the best quality education.

"It's the budget our students deserve," Mr Zetoff said.

Joanna Rosen told the finance board that she attended a number of school board meetings, and that the added money was "incredibly important."

"I hope you don't do anything to make cuts," she said. "I also believe we have a strong group of council members; things have to be lean but provide services that are needed."

Speaking to the municipal budget proposal, Ms Rosen said she has "complete trust in the first selectwoman," and asked finance officials again to "let voters decide" the outcome of the proposed budgets.

Municipal Budget Review

As the finance board closed the hearing and convened its first budget review session, resident Kenneth Shaker took the opportunity to tell officials that he had reviewed budget, noting the cost of transfer station operations is much higher, and asked why $1.4 million is being budgeted for its operations and staffing.

The finance board then revisited a presentation First Selectman Llodra and Dr Erardi previously made on an off-budget proposal to hire a purchasing agent. The position would serve both the town and school district, and would be funded via a 50/50 split of salary and benefits costs across the two budgets.

Hearing that it would hard to predict the amount of cost savings such a professional could deliver to the town, finance board member Mark Boland asked how Mrs Llodra and Dr. Erardi would judge the addition of a purchasing agent a success?

Mrs Llodra said she was leaning on the finance board to help determine if now "is this the right time" to make the move to bring on a purchasing agent.

"One benefit we anticipate is reducing pressure and time on department heads to do specs, and chase the market, taking them out of their work to do something they are not skilled for," she responded. "Hopefully a purchasing agent can involve us in a bigger marketplace for products and services."

Dr. Erardi said it is hard to determine beforehand if the town would be spending to save, but said his expectation would be to evaluate the purchasing agent's effectiveness after one year. "It's not a leap of faith," Dr Erardi said, "but there is no way to quantify the dollars."

Asking if either official considered a trade-off of other requests to offset the approximate $80,000 annual cost for the agent, Mrs Llodra was firm defending a long-standing priority request for a full-time park maintainer. Dr Erardi similarly defended an increase for FTE's or new full-time positions in the proposed budget.

Finance Board Vice Chair James Gaston asked if there was "high confidence we'll get the $80,000" that would recoup the first-year cost for the new agent position. Both Mrs Llodra and Dr Erardi were quick to respond in the affirmative.

Finance Chair John Godin asked that officials return to the next municipal budget review February 27 bringing information on how much time is being spent by department heads doing the work that would be taken on if a purchasing professional position is created.

Finance officials then heard from representatives of the Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers, The C.H. Booth Library board, the Parks & Recreation Department, and a review of budget implications of the self-funded health insurance program and town pension contributions.

The finance board was scheduled to review the school district's budget proposal in detail after this week's print edition of The Newtown Bee.newtownbee.com went to press, February 23. Look for updates on that meeting at

The board will return to deliberate and possibly act on both the municipal and district budget requests on February 27, and also reserved Thursday, March 2, as a possible additional date to meet if members do not complete their review and recommendation on the budgets to the council beforehand.