$72.6 Million –

Council Ok’s A Budget

By Steve Bigham

The Legislative Council Tuesday approved a $72.6 million budget for 2001-2002, which represents a 2.3 mill increase (or a 7.8 percent hike in property taxes). Residents will now have an opportunity to speak on the budget at a public hearing Tuesday, March 27, at the middle school auditorium.

A second public hearing will also be held Saturday, March 31, at 9 am.

As it now stands, a home assessed at $175,000 would see its taxes jump from $5,163 to $5,565 – a $402 increase.

The biggest portion of the town spending – $42.4 million – will go to fund the Board of Education. That budget represents a 7.5 percent increase over the current budget. School leaders had sought a somewhat larger budget, but were required to make $800,000 in cuts in order to bring it within the council’s 7.5 percent guideline.

The remainder of the budget – $30.2 million – will go to fund town services and debt service. The town (or Board of Selectmen) budget is up 7 percent, which is mainly due to a debt service jump from $7 million to $8.2 million. The added money will be used to pay the first installment of a 20-year bonding issue for the construction of a 5/6 school and the purchase of Fairfield Hills. The town has not approved either project. A town meeting to vote on both proposals is tentatively slated for June.

A year ago, Legislative Council Chairman Pierre Rochman spoke out against the proposed budget, which he felt was too high, but had been approved by the council anyway. At the time, he urged voters to vote against the budget and they responded in kind.

This year, the budget is up once again, but Mr Rochman is now urging passage of the budget.

“Considering the growth we’ve seen in town the last bunch of years, considering this budget accommodates the 5/6 school and the possible purchase of Fairfield Hills and some municipal space needs, in view of all that, a 7.8 percent increase is really quite conservative. I was afraid when it all started that we would be looking at something like a 10 percent increase, and I probably would have argued for it,” Mr Rochman said.

By deducting inflation, the town is looking at a four percent increase, he noted, adding that the increase is not much when you consider all that the town is getting.

Council members are also telling residents that if the budget is defeated in a town vote, they may have to consider delaying the construction of the school and/or take the Fairfield Hills purchase out of the plans.

“I don’t think those are reasonable options. Defeating the budget could have some pretty catastrophic implications,” Mr Rochman said. “If people think that by defeating the budget, we may take money out for Fairfield Hills and that would reduce the mill rate, that would be incorrect thinking because we still have municipal space needs, police, fire, Parks & Recreation, etc.”

The town had been looking at a 2.6 mill increase until Finance Director Ben Spragg reworked some of the borrowing figures (using lower interest rates). His recalculations shaved an additional $341,000 from the budget.

The council will re-open its own budget deliberations April 4 to discuss any further changes before sending the budget to a referendum in late April.

Some Line Items                Re-Opened

The Legislative Council Tuesday voted to fund the Family Counseling Center’s entire request of $50,000, a 150 percent increase over the current year. The vote was 6-5 with some members opposed to giving such a large increase. Mr Rochman actually voted against a motion to reduce the agency’s request by $10,000 because he felt a larger cut needed to be made. The move ended up backfiring as his vote turned out to be the deciding factor. As chairman, Mr Rochman would have had to pass the gavel in order to request a re-vote. He decided against the move.

According to Family Counseling Center supporters, the increase in costs is due to a disparity between what the agency subsidizes and what it has been receiving. The gap is widening, noted accountant Glen Nanavaty. In addition, the center’s new executive director was hired at $15,000 higher than the former director.

“We had surprise expenses,” Mr Nanavaty said.

Although Newtown does most of the fundraising and gives the largest amount from its budget, only about half of those who use the agency are from Newtown.

The council also gave $500 to the volunteer center.

Cyrenius H. Booth Library supporters were on hand to speak on behalf of their budget, which had been cut just $13,000 by the Board of Selectmen. They were reportedly on hand simply to ensure that no further cuts were made. According to board member Jim Larin, the library’s budget is up 3 percent, plus one new staff member in the children’s area.

“A 3 percent increase is certainly a modest increase,” Mr Larin said, pointing out that the cost to run the library is just $4.48 per capita each year as opposed to $6.85 per capita in Bethel and $5.31 in Brookfield.

No further cuts were made.

The council also set the town clerk’s salary for the next two years, giving the position a 3 percent increase for each of the next two years – $51,773 effective December 1, 2001, and then to $53,327 effective December 1, 2002.

Resident Dennis Dougherty also spoke at the meeting, saying the proposed budget figures were simply too high. He suggested a budget increase of no more than 5 percent.