Llodra’s Budget Request Less Than One Percent Increase After Debt Costs

By John Voket

First Selectman Pat Llodra and Finance Director Robert Tait are set to unveil a “same services” town-side budget for 2012-13, requesting a 0.86 percent increase, not including almost a half-million dollars in borrowing costs for the Newtown High School expansion and Middle School roof replacement.

Since all borrowing costs are carried in the selectmen’s side of the budget, including school projects, the total municipal request is a 1.97 percent increase over last year’s spending package.

The Bee got a preview of the town-side proposal, to be presented to the Board of Selectmen just after the newspaper goes to press Thursday, January 19. The officials said there are three budget sessions planned, with additional meetings on January 23 and 25.

Mrs Llodra said she expects deliberations on points of the spending plan may be handled more efficiently because her fellow selectmen already have much of the information that previously might have only come to light during interviews with department heads during the selectmen’s public review of the budget.

That information was made available after Mr Tait further improved a new budget development system requesting substantially greater narrative input from department heads explaining  their requests.

And Mrs Llodra and Mr Tait have already spent hundreds of hours crafting the 2012-13 request — work that began before the 2011 budget was accepted by voters in a second-round referendum last May.

“We really started looking at this year’s budget framework before the end of last [fiscal] year,” Mrs Llodra said.

The first selectman said the first draft proposal is the product of an “aggressive review of department needs and requests,” and she is hopeful the plan will meet the board’s intentions to minimize tax increases while providing funds where they are needed most “to move the town forward, however incrementally.”

“The department heads presented very responsible budgets,” Mrs Llodra added.

The finance director explained that the increase requested is $742,000 more than the current adopted budget, and that $502,000 of that increase is committed to debt service representing more than a five percent increase in overall borrowing costs.

“This is a very, very conservative request at the introductory phase,” Mrs Llodra said. She said that during round table discussions with many of her fellow town leaders from Fairfield County, many of the surrounding towns were coming out of the gate with two to three percent requests.

“The great unknown to many of them is the education side,” she said.

Newtown’s Board of Education learned January 17, that Superintendent Janet Robinson is requesting a five percent increase in the next fiscal year. (See separate story.)

Mrs Llodra said she and Mr Tait derived a significant amount of savings — more than $160,000 — from zeroing out a request from the Public Works motor pool budget line, instead committing to begin a new town vehicle replacement program with savings coming from a combination of initiatives.

She expects to gain some vehicle replacement funding from consolidating three public works jobs into two and redistributing duties of the third position across the entire workforce and using new technology to lessen the amount of time previously spent managing the department’s tool crib.

The first selectman would also favor using some of the current capital nonrecurring fund to help underwrite imminently needed vehicle replacements for the Building Department and fire marshal’s office, she said.

Mrs Llodra said she is also looking forward to using some anticipated bond refunding versus added taxation to infuse the town’s fund balance, which is on a three-year schedule to increase from the current 7.1 to eight percent. She is hopeful about adding about $250,000 to the fund balance this year.

“I hope that meets the expectations of the Board of Finance for boosting the fund balance,” said the first selectman.

Mr Tait said the bulk of the requested increase on the town side represents negotiated wage and step increases for the police department totaling $132,000. Mrs Llodra called the 1.85 percent police wage increase “very reasonable,” and said the step increases were anticipated.

“We have a lot of sworn personnel displayed across the step schedule,” Mrs Llodra said. “And this is a young force. There is also some restructuring within the department that accounted for $7,000 to $10,000 of that increase.”

Highway Department workers will receive a negotiated 1.9 percent increase accounting for another $92,000 in the 2012-13 spending plan, but the aforementioned workforce reduction is part of that program.

The town also created a net reduction in workers between the assessor’s and tax collector’s office that could save more than $50,000 including benefits. In addition, two workers between those departments will be cross trained to handle duties in both offices as seasonal workflow demands.

Another $25,000 has been added to supplement a worker at the town Social Services office, to support a six-month period annually when there is a substantially increased workload, Mrs Llodra said.

The current department associate will work five days instead of four, between October and March, she said.

Modest Benefit Bump

Mr Tait said he is anticipating a $107,000 increase in employee medical benefit costs, but that number could fluctuate down or up depending on claim experience the second half of this fiscal year, from January to June 2012. Overall, the selectmen’s operational expense budget line decreased by $42,000 reflecting the continuing redistribution of Fairfield Hills maintenance and management expenses in the coming year from a private management firm to various town departments.

Four nonprofit organizations that previously received nominal contributions commensurate with the number of town residents served have dropped off the budget because they failed to file required request information with the town last year. Those agencies include Amos House, WeCare, the Shelter of the Cross, and the regional Literacy Volunteers program.

The finance director said that pension costs, general liability insurance and workers compensation costs are remaining flat in the 2012-13 budget request.

Although Mrs Llodra said it may appear she and Mr Tait did a lot of the work that was formerly done during public budget sessions, she hopes that details they bring forward to the board reflect an appropriate balance of savings and spending.

“I’m concerned that we now do so much of the work it doesn’t leave a lot for the Board of Selectmen to do to,” Mrs Llodra said, adding that there are still 34 separate government budget lines that require individual motions and votes to pass.

“So each selectman will be able to look those sections over, and will be able to provide input before endorsing a final number,” she said. “I want the board taking a hard look at it.”

Mrs Llodra said she also regrets that the budget does not go far enough supporting organizations like the town’s Sustainable Energy Committee, which came forward for the second year with what Mrs Llodra said was “millions in capital project requests” that will be considered for possible inclusion in the separate Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). She said requests for energy saving or monitoring projects will be included with similar capital requests from the C,H. Booth Library and Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers.

Mrs Llodra also pointed out the budget requests a $25,000 contribution to fund development of a local dog park, which is being overseen by volunteers, but will eventually fall under the management of the Parks & Recreation Department.

“We want to recognize the value of these public-private partnerships, which are developing facilities for the entire town,” Mrs. Llodra said. “We want to keep those projects alive.”