The Board of Education's message clearly was that the West Hartford taxpayer be damned.
They voted to adopt a $126.7 Million budget.
The Board of Education said they were listening to "the voices".
It is said that people who listen to voices are usually "off" some sort of medication.
It is clear that Superintendent Karen List and her Board of Education pretty much are looking to have a tax referendum in this town, as they really had no interest in listening to the pleas of Mayor or the Town Manager, or anyone else for that matter, who wished to instill some sort of fiscal reality.
Fine, they wanted to keep the World Language program, and they made a handful of commendable cuts here and there, but the reality is that a 4.35 percent increase over current spending is unrealistic and unsustainable. These folks are NOT doing us any favors, and they are NOT doing anything to prepare for what's coming in next year's budget when federal stimulus dollars will be non-existent. We WILL eventually have around a $10 million dollar hole to fill! Might as well start trying to fill that hole now.
They have feigned real analysis of some very sound ideas to streamline costs and programs because they are not really interested in reining in their spending. It's business as usual for them.
Their message:
Screw the families, the retirees, and the single parents who are struggling in this economy; we want what we want.
Funny how the voices of the families, retirees and single parents were not listened to.
Unless the Town Council steps up and helps our struggling residents (7% of which are unemployed), and the sustainability of Town budgets, by saying NO to more Education spending increases, it is pretty certain that we will be spending tens of thousands of dollars in a referendum, or two.
The Town Council needs to adopt a budget which includes NO increase for the Board of Education. We must begin to deal with next year's budget in this year's budget, and a looming $10 million dollar deficit for next year is absolutely unacceptable.
Courage Mr. Mayor and Council members.
You know in the end, that if you limit the Board's spending that they will find a way to compensate and still provide an excellent education for our kids.
As TOWH has written in a previous post:
it's amazing how our school administration always seems to find an extra million or two laying around somewhere, sort of like that"googly eyed stack of money" in the GEICO commercials. It makes one wonder what other funds they are keeping on reserve and how much better they can do in terms of managing their budget.
8 WH Responses:
At Tuesday's meeting Mr. Putterman complained that they had a 0% increase last year. He conveniently forgot that the Board used the stimulus money (ARRA) to keep the spending level up.
Rather than looking at the ARA money as a chance to dive into the budget and reponsibly look for cuts the BOE DID NOTHING! Now they want 4.35% next year they will need 7-10% because of the looming deficit. These budgets can not be supported in this economy.
Tuesday night the Board spent 2 hours looking at potential cuts. After all that they could only find $24,600 to cut out of a $126million budget. Hell they even left the $5000 Magnum Scholarship in the budget.
Not one of the ideas presented by Mudge, Spinella, Hardy and Woodard were seriously considered. They were dismissed out of hand. The Board wouldn't even state that they'd work on them for next year.
The Mayor should cut the BOE budget and should there be a referendum he should let the BOE know the cost will be a further deduction from their budget.
The Courant stated that "Minou Roufail said it's crucial to fully support the town school system, which she said still offers an excellent education to the town's diverse student population, even though staff and programs have been trimmed."
What does Minou care about taxes? She hardly pays any to begin with in comparison to many others in town who are already being soaked. Her house is assessed at $111,800
She pays roughly $4,196.97.
Visit tax estimator.
http://www.westhartford.org/taxestimator/index.aspx
Out of couriosity I looked up her assessment a couple of weeks ago and found a slightlty different number, I think it was $165K. But came to the same conclusion.
What's ironic is that she is going to be nailed with the next reval coming up real fast, because it is these lower priced homes that are skyrocketing in value while the expensive homes are crashing. We'll see how supportive she is when her assessment jumps up.
The lower priced homes are the ones selling in town, and the prices have been rising quickly.
You have a large group of home owners that are going to be crushed by new taxes with the next reval.
The house is valued at 165,000 and assessed at 70% of valuation. After that you apply the mill rate.
Hey, did you see they want to explore reducing street lighting to cut costs? http://www.courant.com/community/west-hartford/hc-west-hartford-streetlights-0.artapr09,0,1048730.story
Maybe the change, if implemented, will be ok, but the lights on our street are already pretty dim. Hard to believe less light helps drivers or public safety.
I think its time for the town and the BOE to get some give backs from these over paid teachers. It seems to me they feel no pain. If they gave there raise up for one year just like everyone elese we yould have some real savings. Let see if the town or the boe have the guts to go after these over paid teacher.
what I don't understand is why David Kraus is still our town engineer...he "retired" right after Blue Back was approved...collects a pension, benefits, and a consultant's salary from West Hartford...and no one is in training to take over the position so this will probably go on until his real retirement...public employees are a joke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pEmqutcbPc&feature=player_embedded
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