Date: Fri 19-Apr-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

budget-vote-town-school

Full Text:

Town Poised To Vote On Its First $50 Million Budget

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Newtown voters will go to the polls Tuesday, April 23, to vote on the proposed

$50.3 million municipal/school budget for 1996-97. Voting will take place at

the Newtown Middle School from 6 am to 8 pm.

The budget reflects an overall 11.63 percent spending increase, mostly due to

debt payments on anticipated capital projects. That's because the Legislative

Council decided to include in the proposed budget the $3.1 million in debt

service for school renovation/expansion projects which will be voted upon at a

town meeting in June.

"We have a situation in which we know that capital projects may happen in

1996-97 and we have an opportunity to put them into our budget. This is a

financially prudent thing to do," said Joseph Mahoney, council president.

"In the past this hasn't happened," he said. "When capital projects were

approved at town meetings, the town has had to do short-term borrowing until

the next budget is approved."

The proposed $21,577,093 municipal budget includes $7.3 million in debt

service, a 91 percent increase over the current year. The actual proposed

operating budget is $14,173,898, an $839,975 increase, $350,000 of which is

for road reconstruction.

The proposed operating budget also includes a three percent salary increase

for town employees, $40,000 to create a position of human resources

(personnel) director, $37,000 for computer equipment, $100,000 for the town's

self-funded health insurance program, and $130,000 for a tanker for the Sandy

Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company. The town already has purchased a tanker

for each of the other companies to haul water to fires in neighborhoods that

don't have readily accessible groundwater supplies.

First Selectman Bob Cascella deleted $1.7 million in requests by department

heads before producing his budget. The Board of Selectmen cut another $60,000.

Legislative Council opted to add $350,000 in road reconstruction costs to the

operating budget to save the long-term bonding costs.

The council also decided to put $575,000 of the town's $2 million audited

surplus into the Reserve Fund for Capital and Nonrecurring Expenditures to

help pay for the cost of renovating Town Hall South; the remaining $1,475,000

would be used to offset taxes next year. When the operating budget and the

amount allocated for the capital reserve fund are added together, the proposed

increase in the municipal budget next year, without debt service, is 3.6

percent.

The School Budget

The proposed $28,286,212 school budget is up 4.57 percent from the current

year. School Board Chairman Herb Rosenthal said that much of the increase is

directly due to the projected 3.5 percent increase in student enrollment.

The $1,460,792 budget increase includes $617,986 for negotiated salary

increases of about three percent per year for school district staff. The

increase also reflects about $200,000 for new staff, including about 4«

additional teachers, an additional $160,000 for transportation because

enrollment and bus routes are increasing, about $150,000 for building

maintenance, and more than $80,000 in out-of-district tuition and special

education services.

This year the Legislative Council cut the school board's requested budget by

$250,000. The school board has not yet decided where it will make the cuts.

The total $50,338,305 budget was approved 11-1 by the council. Councilman

Joseph McGowan voted against the budget because he wanted $2.8 million in debt

service for the proposed high school addition to be removed. He said the town

can't afford the project during this budget year and it should be postponed.

Other council members said that because of the recent property revaluation and

the tax increase which will be needed next year for the town's sewer project,

it isn't likely that next year will be any better than this year for

encumbering additional debt. Delaying the project also would mean losing state

aid and the money already spent for achitects' fees plus potentially higher

construction costs, they said.

The proposed school projects - $27.9 million for the high school, $3.9 million

for Hawley School and $630,000 for a new roof at Head O'Meadow School -

account for about $3.1 million of the $3.5 million increase in debt service;

the rest is for debt service for the Booth Library project and for road bonds.

School officials have pointed out, however, that the town will receive $1

million back from the state in school building grant revenue, making the net

cost to the town about $2 million. The high school and Hawley School projects

qualify for 40 percent state reimbursement and the Head O'Meadow roof will be

reimbursed 36.8 percent, if the projects are done now.

The New Tax Rate

The new tax rate, based on the most recent revenue projections, will be 25.5

mills.

To compute next year's taxes, property owners must know their new property

assessment, which was set in the town's recent property revaluation, and

multiply it by 25.5.

Under the current tax rate of 32 mills, the owner of a house assessed at

$100,000 paid $3,200 in real estate property taxes this year. According to the

tax assessor, the average real property assessment increased by approximately

40 percent in the revaluation. Using this average, that house, now assessed at

$140,000, would have a tax bill of $3,570 next year ($140,000 x 25.5 mills), a

$370 increase.

Roughly 2.4 mills of the proposed 25.5 mill tax rate is due to the $3,492,621

in additional debt service for the capital projects. Without this increase in

the debt service, the tax bill for this $140,000 house would be $3,234, a $34

increase.

Under the current budget, each mill of taxes equalled about $1 million in

spending. Since the revaluation, each mill equals about $1.45 million in

spending.

If the budget is not approved on Tuesday, the council will hold a special

meeting the following day, Wednesday, April 24, at 8 pm in the Middle School

Library for further discussion and possible action.