Spending on school staff and an improved town emergency radio system were questioned by taxpayers at Monday night’s public hearing on the $137 million 2015-16 budget, while town and school officials announced that nearly $1 million in health insurance savings would reduce costs and lower next year’s projected tax increase from almost 3% to just over 2%.
“Once again the Board of Education is asking to hire four more people even as school enrollment continues to fall and is predicted to fall for years to come,” said Ed Tyrrell.
In all about 30 people turned out for Monday night’s public hearing on the budget. Eight citizens spoke — all sounding skeptical, although most asked questions rather than taking a stand on the budget, as Tyrrell did.
Don Daughters was among a number of speakers with questions about plans for a $3.7 million upgrade being planned to the radio system that serves the police, fire and other town departments.
“It sounds like you’ve gone from cave man to 21st century,” he said of the radio project that town officials described as years overdue. “How do you go from zero to $4 million? That is a major, major upgrade.”
First Selectman Rudy Marconi defended the radio improvements, saying firemen and policemen currently had to deal with dead spots where they were without radio coverage.
“We need to give officers the ability to know, wherever the are, they’re only a radio call away from help,” he said.
Michelle Brewster asked why improvements at the high school library were being planned, when a new $20 million town library had recently been completed.
“Since you spent so much on the town library, why can’t students use the town library,” she asked.
School Superintendent Deborah Low announced during her presentation that a reduction in health insurance costs negotiated by Rob Fitzpatrick, who advises both the school and town on health insurance, would save the schools $989,000.
“He was able to lower our costs by a little over 5%,” she said. “…This is tremendously good news.”
The school insurance savings would bring the school system’s requested budget increase to $1,233,638 on the current $85.2 million budget — down from a 2.61% to 1.45% increase, Low said.
Finance board chairman Dave Ulmer said that the projected tax increase needed to support the proposed budget had been reduced from 2.91% to 2.04% by the savings announced — and the finance board has about $1.6 million in surplus fund balance that it could dedicate to reducing the needed tax increase, while keeping to the guidelines its sets for itself. The board has a goal of maintaining a fund balance of uncommitted money equal to about 8%-to-9% of total town and school spending — about $12 million against the $137 million budget.
The Board of Finance begins its work on the budget this week with meetings planned Tuesday night and Wednesday night starting at 7:30 in town hall’s large conference room. Finance board budget meetings are also planned Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.
When the finance board is done with the budget, the 2015-16 spending plan will be sent to voters for approval at the Annual Town Meeting May 4 and the annual budget referendum May 12.
The 2015-16 fiscal year that the budget will finance begins July 1.