Organizer Says Initial Public Budget Forum

Provided Some Answers, Clarified Points

By John Voket

Following the eventual passage of the 2010-11 town budget after two earlier attempts failed in referendum voting, local resident Caren Wellman started thinking about ways in which she and other local taxpayers could better understand the budget process, and avoid being inappropriately influenced by misinformation, or worse, differing sources of information about similar budget points.

So she pitched an idea about inviting a number of local political leaders and top administrative officials to an informal and nonpartisan question and answer session. It was Ms Wellman’s hope that by understanding the mistakes, or missteps, from the last, “extremely contentious” budget season, Newtown would no longer be doomed to repeat them.

That idea came to fruition in a packed council chamber at the Newtown Municipal Center on September 28, as Newtown’s First Selectman, Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson, and municipal Finance Director Robert Tait sat among school board, finance board, and Legislative Council members, responding primarily to questions posed in writing from taxpayers in advance, as well as attendees.

The budget forum was moderated with informed efficiency by Trumbull attorney and state League of Women Voters officer Jean Rabinow, who shuffled through a package of questions balancing queries about town and school issues during the 80-minute session.

The first question was fielded by Mr Tait, about savings realized after the latest round of municipal bond refinancing netted more than a half-million dollars in savings.

The finance director replied that the bond refunding was like a homeowner refinancing a mortgage.

“I thought it was important to use next year’s budget for the savings,” Mr Tait said. “The result is, next year, there’s a little bit of pressure taken off the budget. We will have to budget $572,000 less for interest we pay on our bonds.”

Several minutes of discussion resulted from a question about the school board’s recent adopting of an “encumbrance-based” system of financial reporting, which absolves the Board of Education from reviewing and authorizing ongoing budget transfers during the year.

Board of Finance Chairman John Kortze said his board recently recommended the district return to the former transfer-based reporting practice. He noted that since some of the line item transfers generating a substantial school board surplus last fiscal year were “in excess of $100,000,” the Board of Finance was concerned that a lack of immediate oversight would hamper the school board, and taxpayers’, ability to understand where the surplus was coming from.

“The [Board of Education] clearly has autonomy,” Mr Kortze said of the school board’s authority over its spending. “I think what’s important is an understanding of what’s moving and why, and a discussion surrounding what’s moving and why, in a public manner.”

That observation brought a call from Councilman Gary Davis to develop “a universal set of numbers,” for all parties involved to use, to help understand and follow the various moving parts of the budget development process.

“We think it’s critical,” Mr Kortze concurred.

‘Rainy Day’ Fund

Another area of extended discussion came following a question calling for clarity on tapping the town’s so-called “rainy day” fund. Mr Kortze explained the general fund is a town operational account that is subject to certain rules and procedures which help control use of those funds.

“In times like this, it could be very detrimental” to tap the fund, Mr Kortze said, to provide tax relief. And he reinforced why maintaining a five percent ratio between the overall budget and the general fund is a fiscally important practice.

Mr Tait added that every dollar taken from the general fund to offset current tax increases has to be made up in addition to operational and benefit increases that are part and parcel to each subsequent year’s budget.

“It’s almost like using credit cards,” Mr Tait said.

Councilman Kevin Fitzgerald said he initially thought tapping the general fund to offset taxes would be acceptable.

“To a lot of people in these tough economic times, this was a rainy day,” Mr Fitzgerald said. But after learning the true and appropriate purpose for the fund, “I agree that is probably not the right place to tap into.”

While not all the questions were evidently related to the last budget cycle, most if not all were rooted in subjects affected by town or school budget practices.

One involved apparent misinformation circulating among Reed School students and parents about a new Sixth Day program, which sets aside blocks of instructional time with flexibility for teachers to use in teaching the social studies, science, reading, writing, and math curricula.

Ms Rabinow, reading from the prompt, said the Sixth Day session was being referred to “as a day with no work.”

The new practice also provides all of Reed’s unified arts/specials teachers (i.e., physical education, health, computer, music, art, guidance) to meet in a common planning period as a schoolwide data team to review and analyze school and student data in order to improve student achievement and curriculum integration.

Caught Off Guard

Dr Robinson was initially caught off guard by the question and responded that concerns about the Reed School scheduling had nothing to do with last year’s budget. But after several audience members articulated that students were told the scheduling was adjusted because of budget cuts, Dr Robinson said that to date, she had heard nothing about any concerns.

Dr Robinson said the schedule was determined by Reed staff after losing two key positions there. But she also invited parents to express their concerns about matters like the new Sixth Day cycle directly to her office.

“The communication is two-way. I’m easy to find,” Dr Robinson said. “A lot of people find me.”

School board member Debbie Leidlein said the utilization of the block scheduling is fairly common, but said the communication about the scheduling and related assemblies students will attend may have not been adequately communicated to parents.

Following the forum, Ms Wellman told The Bee that despite the fact that she was the individual who worked to produce the first session, she was looking forward to seeing these types of open forums continue.

“It was never about me,” she said, adding that anyone in attendance could have come away learning a lot about where leaders stood on important issues and how they planned to move forward into the next budget cycle.

“I needed to feel assured that our town leaders are hard at work making data-driven decisions for all the taxpayers,” Ms Wellman said. “And I think a lot of participants came away with good ideas about how to move forward.

“When people get answers,” she concluded, “the anger and frustration goes away.”

(See video highlights, and hear the complete audio transcript of the session, at www.NewtownBee.com)