Posted on 26 March 2012.
[EDITOR AT WORK: Article is in the process of having a detailed summary of the meeting included, as our editor is able to add to it; Wednesday, March 28]
The Board of Finance (BOF) members met on Thursday, March 22, to discuss cuts to the town’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2012-2013. Going into the meeting the total increase over the current year’s budget stood at 6.25%; by the end of the meeting the total town budget increase had been cut to 2.75% and that is the increase included in the proposed town budget that is being brought to the Public Hearing on April 10.
At the end of their previous meeting on Saturday, March 17, the BOF members all agreed that the 6.25% increase in the proposed budget was unacceptable and Chairman Ben Witte asked all the Board members to submit their recommended cuts in writing to him before the next meeting on March 22. At that next meeting, Ben went around the table and asked each BOF member to go through the cuts they had recommended.
Below is the video of the March 22 Board of Finance meeting.
Click on the image above to watch the March 22 Board of Finance meeting on the NewHartfordPlus channel on YouTube
Summary of Discussion At BOF Meeting
.
Before any of the BOF members went through their recommendations, First Selectman Dan Jerram presented two options for reaching an acceptable budget increase in the proposed budget, i.e. under 3%. Download a copy of the First Selectman’s options: Proposed Budget Options - First Selectman Dan Jerram (21). The presentation of the two options begins at 1 min. 15 secs. in the video linked to below.
Another item that the First Selectman updated the BOF members on was the question of whether some of the town’s undesignated reserve could be applied to pay down some of the town’s debt, a possibility brought up by BOF member Maria Moore at a previous Board of Finance meeting. She proposed this as a way to lower the town’s undesignated reserve which now stands at approximately 14-16%, a level which BOF members feel is too high. First Selectman Dan Jerram said that he had spoken to the town’s financial advisor, Dennis Dixon, whose input was that it didn’t make sense to pay down any of the bonds due to the nature of those bond; this discussion is at 9 mins. 50 secs. of the video. Dan Jerram then went on to say that a new $1.5 million bond for the windows/doors at Antolini School several other smaller projects would cost the town approximately $106,000 per year, something that could take the place of the Bakerville School bond which is expiring next year; this discussion begins at 11 mins. in the video.
From the outset all the BOF members agreed on cutting the $526,000 Capital Expenditures item for the New Hartford Public Schools in the proposed budget; that expenditure was to replace the windows and doors at Ann Antolini School. The $526,000 Capital Expenditures item was placed in next year’s (2013-2014 FY) Capital Expenditures projects, while next year’s Capital Expenditures, approximately $129,000 [exact figure to be verified] line item for the local elementary schools was included in this year’s (2012-2013 FY) proposed budget. Since the bond for the Bakerville School renovations will be paid off in 2013, the Board of Finance members said they wanted to explore packaging the windows and doors project with other miscellaneous projects into a bond that would replace the Antolini bond payment in the town’s budget. Maria Moore asked if it would make sense to take some of the undesignated reserve and apply it to the cost of the project directly so that the town would take on less of a debt in the form of the bond. Ben’s input was to use the cash to level out the first payment which would be greater than the subsequent ones. Applying it to the debt to reduce the debt payments, he said, was “a drop in the bucket.”
Members’ Recommended Cuts:
Jim Fitzgerald: Video beginning at 19 mins.
Jim said he wanted to see Northwestern Regional # 7′s budget cut by an additional $300,000, which would bring them to a 0% increase. Noel Gauthier, one of the two New Hartford representatives on the Regional # 7 Board of Ed, said that the Regional Board had at their meeting the previous night approved a 2% increase, which was equal to $587,000 for New Hartford, down from $605,687 in Regional’s original budget. Jim also had $124,000 in cuts for the elementary schools’ Board of Ed.
On the Capital Expenditures, Jim cut $113,000 from the town’s Capital Expenditures and $491,000 out of the $526,000 that the local Board of Ed had requested. The $35,000 he did not cut from the schools’ Capital Expenditures he said was the $35,000 Technology line item in the elementary schools’ Operations budget which he said should be part of the Capital Expenditures budget. This move of the Technology line item preserved whole the funding for Technology at the elementary schools in next year’s proposed budget. BOF member Reggie Smith asked whether they could move one line item from their budget to another line item and Jim responded they could ask them to do it. “It’s a win for them,” Jim said.
Asked how much the local elementary schools had left over in their capital line item, Dr. Philip O’Reilly said it was about $58,000. Beginning last year, the Board of Finance is allowing the local elementary schools to carry forward any unexpended capital projects funds they might have to be applied to future Board of Ed projects.
Jim went on to recommend cutting $71,000 from the two town libraries, $70,000 from the Beekley Library and $1,000 from the Bakerville Library. He said the town should not be paying so much money to non-municipal operations; see video at 25 minutes. He then added that the Assistant Town Clerk position should be cut as well as other positions at Town Hall. Maria Moore asked Jim if he had looked at the user numbers for the library since those were townspeople who were being served; he responded by saying he didn’t have to and that she had a conflict with the library and she responded she didn’t and if one were to talk about conflicts everyone at that table would have a conflict since we all from a small town; see video at 26 mins. 30 secs.
Maria Moore Video begins at 28 mins. 30 secs.
Maria had handed out a copy of her recommended cuts which totalled $700,000; download a copy of those cuts: Cuts to consider: 2012-2013 Budget - Maria Moore (41).
She briefly touched on some of the items. She had cut $100,000 from the New Hartford Public Schools, saying that she had not wanted to make any cuts that would affect the numbers of teachers in the classroom since that was important to the children. In Town Government she had cut $75,000, moving $15,000 of the Assessor’s Assistant cost to the Zoning Department since the assistant was working half-time in Zoning. She then cut the $15,000 from Zoning which this year was adding on an engineering services on top of the ones budgeted for the town as a whole, and more office support hours in addition to the Assessor’s Assistant who didn’t appear in that department’s budget.
She went on to cut $20,000 out of the Ambulance Association’s line item, saying that it was her understanding that the town is still paying an inflated amount per capita. “We don’t pay anyone else an inflated amount for their services,” she said. She then cut $8,000 from the EDC (Economic Development Commission)’s line item saying that if EDC had a specific idea they could come back to the Board of Finance for more funding. “Anything to do with EDC we’d be happy to fund, but right now they have more than they need,” she said. Her final cut under Town Government was the $14,0000 line item which goes to pay for the Torrington Water hydrants. “We don’t pay for the water hydrants for the two other fire districts (New Hartford Fire district and Pine Meadow Fire District) and we shouldn’t be paying for these,” she said. “That was a prearranged deal that was done 5 to 6 years ago, that brings water to the site in Harwinton. Home Depot pays part, the South End (Fire District) pays part and the town pays part…. and there’s revenue from the personal property that comes in to offset it. It’s really not an expenditure because they’re paying taxes.”
