A sparsely populated meeting room at the Municipal Center April 1 was the scene of an appropriately distanced Legislative Council meeting that included some high level discussion about the 2020-21 town and school district budget requests ahead of further planned deliberation on Wednesday, April 15.

It was no prank that on April 1 Chairman Paul Lundquist, First Selectman Dan Rosenthal, Town Finance Director Robert Tait, and Council Clerk Rina Quijano were the only ones sitting in separate corners of the U-shaped meeting table at the Municipal Center while the remaining 11 elected leaders called in from home.

The first bit of news was delivered by the council’s Education Committee Chairman Dan Wiedemann, who reported that his panel unanimously voted to recommend the school district budget request that had been forwarded by the Board of Finance.

None of the other council committees reviewing specific areas of the budget proposal had reached consensus, according to their respective chairs.

The Board of Selectmen previously moved a municipal budget proposal to the Board of Finance for review totaling $43,211,955 — a 2.45 percent bump from the current spending plan. The Board of Education also previously approved a $79,201,776 budget proposal for 2020-21 — a 1.4 percent increase over the current budget.

After deliberation and several motions, the finance board made a $95,000 net reduction to a bottom line budget request of $112,435,218 that was presented to the council. It should be noted that the municipal budget carries all debt service on capital borrowing, including bonding for school district projects.

Since that action, the coronavirus pandemic drastically changed the landscape of state municipal and school budget processes.

In late March, Governor Ned Lamont issued an initial Executive Order permitting towns and cities that normally hold budget votes or town meetings to forego them in favor of budgets being approved by sanctioned municipal legislative bodies. However, Newtown’s latest Charter Revision created a requirement for voters to also authorize or reject bonding certain high-cost capital projects.

But Gov Lamont’s April 1 Executive Order 7S provided apparent closure on that concern.

The first selectman said he believed that Order (7S) effectively prohibited any municipal budget referendums or town meetings, and authorized municipal bodies like Newtown’s Legislative Council to approve qualified capital authorizations that would otherwise need to be approved by voters at referendum. On April 13, Rosenthal told The Newtown Bee he received confirmation that legislative council approval of both local budget requests and two key bonding authorizations would be legal and appropriate.

The first selectman also confirmed he would present a revised plan to the council April 15 with a $700,000 reduction resulting in a zero percent tax increase, and an overall 2020-21 spending increase of 1.12 percent.

“Any budget is an impact, but taxation will be virtually the same [as the current year], as long as it is approved down the line,” the first selectman said.

“So I think we’re going to identify one-time capital expenses and apply part of our FEMA reimbursement to offsetting that $700,000,” he said of a FEMA reimbursement for local expenses resulting from a May 2018 macroburst that devastated parts of Newtown and the region.

That final FEMA payment of $2,001,532 was recently received, Tait confirmed.

The first selectman said that $700,000 reduction “takes us to a zero increase.” Assuming council support, that $700,000 will go into the capital nonrecurring fund, Rosenthal said, and would involve a $450,000 reduction to the school budget and $250,000 from the town.

“By using some of that FEMA money, we haven’t compounded the problem by carrying a recurring liability into future budget years,” the first selectman said, adding that one-time capital spending would be on things like vehicles, computers, and other technology software and hardware.

“We’re doing it proportionally with a 65/35 percent split,” Rosenthal said, adding that during discussion on the proposal with the finance board April 13, “there seemed to be general consensus to the approach.”

During the earlier council meeting in April, Lundquist said he was aiming to have the remaining council committee recommendations by May 6 or sooner, with anticipated budget adoption occurring at either a regular meeting May 20, or at a special meeting on May 27.

The council chairman said he appreciated the extension of the budget timeline, which would help clarify any amount of savings anticipated in the current budget because of various service restrictions or closures related to the coronavirus situation.

Any resident wishing to speak during the two public participation opportunities during the April 15 council meeting can call in to 203-270-4249. The meeting can be viewed using the Adobe Flash application and by visiting the meeting video page on the municipal website www.newtown-ct.gov/minutes-and-agendas.