Budgeting In Newtown:

The Art Of The Possible

It is the time of year when Newtown’s budgetmakers once again try to master the art of the possible. As in most creative enterprises, the skill of the artist sometimes manifests itself as much by what is left out as by what is included. What to include or leave out of Newtown’s 2001-2002 budget is already testing the skills of the town’s budget artists.

One goal of the Legislative Council’s finance committee is to limit the increase of operating budgets to 7.5 percent. This request seems reasonable enough, especially in a year when non-operating, or capital expenditures, are expected to balloon with the construction of a $32 million school for students in grades five and six. Add to that another $20 million in expenses associated with the expected purchase of Fairfield Hills, the construction of ball fields, and the creation of much-needed town office space.  The intention of the finance committee is to keep a tax increase this year to two mills or under, which continues Newtown’s inexorable tax creep but not in a way that is likely to undermine public support for the budget.

How hard can it be to keep an operating budget from increasing more than 7.5 percent in the coming year –a rate more than twice that of the current 3.5 percent rate of inflation? The Board of Education is finding out that it can be very hard. The schools’ utility bills are going up 42.5 percent, health insurance costs are up 12.2 percent, transportation costs are up 9.3 percent, out-of-district tuition costs for local students are up 37.5 percent, and costs for technology equipment is up 158.8 percent. On top of that, the schools have requested more than a million in capital projects, including athletic fields at the high school, and modular classrooms and water and sewer hook-ups at Sandy Hook. It’s not a simple problem.

We learned from Town Historian Dan Cruson last week, at his informative talk on the history of Newtown’s schools at the Booth Library, that Newtowners have been struggling with the art of the possible right from the start of the town’s experience with public education. In 1711, the year Newtown was chartered, the town had no school. One of the community’s first acts was to vote to build a structure to be used for town meetings and as a school. The first effort to bring secondary education to town came more than a century later. Forty-six citizens pledged $1,475 to start The Newtown Academy in 1837. People saw a need, sacrifices were made, someone passed the hat. People didn’t have a lot of money back in the early part of the 19th Century, but they did what they could and soon a school building was standing on Main Street where the savings bank is now. It wasn’t fancy, but it served its purpose well. The school system today probably spends more on postage than that first fund drive raised, but the sense of dedication and sacrifice for the cause of education is still pretty much the same.

The Legislative Council and the Board of Education have both set budgetary and educational goals that have the town’s best interests at heart. Some budget requests will be impossible to fulfill this year and will have to be left out of the town’s final spending plan. But we are relying on the town’s finance and education officials to once again master the art of the possible. They must come up with a financial picture that reflects Newtown’s continuing commitment to public education without adding to the hardships of property owners who now struggle to pay their tax bills. We hope and believe that it is possible.