Llodra Defends The Budget And Its Review Process

By John Voket

Calls to “let the voters decide” on a town budget as presented by municipal and school leadership without further review by the Board of Finance and Legislative Council prompted First Selectman Pat Llodra to remind taxpayers this week that they are served by a “representative government” that has served the community for centuries.

Addressing what Mrs Llodra called “critical” budget issues, the first selectman was quick to defend the current system of checks and balances. She pointed out that in just the past few months, the system has produced well over a million dollars in taxpayer savings because Newtown’s rigorous and comprehensive practice of budgetary due diligence was recognized by its current bond rating agency.

That rating agency upgrade permitted the town to save $1.2 million over what it would have cost in interest had the bond rating not been upgraded following a Standard & Poor’s review.

She said that while it may be politically tempting to acquiesce to taxpayers who are passionate about certain budgetary concerns, the multistage process of delivering a budget proposal to voters for consideration every April, which begins months earlier, is a process that works.

“Our charter mandates different scopes of responsibility by our elected and appointed boards,” Mrs Llodra said. “If they don’t do their job, the voters get to make a decision to replace them on Election Day.”

Mrs Llodra said that advocating to transfer the proposed town and school district budgets directly to the voters, bypassing finance board and council steps, “undermines the process of our representative democracy.”

“Our elected officials must be responsible, and act on behalf of their entire constituency,” she said. “They must heed what they say and then lead on those issues. By doing that they can bring forward a recommendation that is in the best interests of the entire town.”

Mrs Llodra also responded to those calling for, or suggesting. the town could afford to present a 2010-2011 budget that provides a zero tax increase, saying she believes that decision would not be in the best interests of the entire community.

“A zero tax increase would move the town backward,” Mrs Llodra said. “That would mean bringing forward a budget this year that would be cut by $2.5 million more than what is currently proposed.”

Find Another $2.5 Million?

The first selectman said bringing in a zero-tax-increase budget next year would mean finding another $2.5 million to cut, following the drastic drop in various revenues, accommodating the roughly $1.1 million in additional cuts her office and board already found in the town-side proposal. This in addition to the quarter-million-dollar reduction to the proposed municipal budget increase, and a $2.5 million reduction to the school district’s requested budget increase.

She said the current proposal, which will be deliberated by the Legislative Council beginning April 7, represents an overall budget increase of 1.5 percent, but due to disproportionate drops in grants and other revenues from the state and from fees the municipality can legally collect — from dog licenses to conveyance taxes — the budget would require a three percent increase in taxation.

Town officials have requested the school district share the burden of the community’s overall revenue decrease by applying a two-thirds / one-third formula to the anticipated loss, which Finance Director Robert Tait said could bring proposed taxation down from the three percent level to 2,4 percent. But the district and the Board of Education has yet to entertain that proposal.

Mr Tait said one final possible avenue to further reduce taxation in the coming year would be to apply $234,000 in town aid road grants to offset revenue reductions. If that contingency is approved, it would affect about a 0.4 percent additional taxpayer savings.

The first selectman said the “revenue stream depletion” Newtown is facing in the 2010-2011 budget requires a 1.35 percent tax increase before a single penny is added to either the town-side or school-side expenditures.

“That means a vote for a flat budget is still a vote for a tax increase,” Mrs Llodra said., adding that while the current proposal represents a three percent increase in the tax rate, it does not reflect a three percent increase in spending.

A mill equals $1 of taxation on every $1,000 in assessed property value.

Mrs Llodra confirmed that if the budget is passed on to and approved by taxpayers as currently proposed, the school district would receive a budget increase in excess of $670,000 over the current year’s budget, and the town would receive an increase of $58,000.

She added that the revenue stream reductions representing state grants is disproportionate, in that most of the losses will be suffered from the town-side of the budget. Both the anticipated Education Cost Sharing Grant and the anticipated Excess Cost Grants from the state to the school district will be consistent with the current year’s funding, and that the district’s most evident loss is approximately $36,000 from a state transportation grant reduction.