Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Budget Referendum Today - June 15
Some things to consider:
The Current Mill Rate for West Hartford is 38.38
It's one of the highest Mill Rates in the state.
We have a property revaluation coming up in 2011.
According to presentations by the West Hartford Superintendent of Schools:
In the past 10 years, the BOE budget has risen 61% (this year 4.3%)
In the past 10 years, Education Salaries have risen 35% and Benefits by 179%!!
In the last 4 years the BOE has only cut 6.3 certified staff positions out of 820! and recent “Cuts” that Ms. Fleischli speaks about in the video above, were made to vacant/unfilled positions.
Each school gets about $80,000 of discretionary spending with no traceable budget.
In the Town Manager's 5 Year Projection of Revenues, Expenditures and Financial Imbalance for West Hartford – The Budget shortfall for 2010/11 is already $12.5 million!
West Hartford is using more one time revenues for FY 2010-11 than other towns allowing it to propose a higher spending increase but lower tax rate increase than the typical CT town. (One time revenues are things like Federal Stimulus money and legal settlements)
The median spending increase for the 153 CT towns that have adopted budgets to date is 1.41% The Board of Education median spending increase is 1.58% for those towns. West Hartford's Board of Education spending increase is a little short of three times as much as the median education spending increase of adopted budgets through 6/11/2010.
We all can agree that we live in a great town.
We need to make sure that Town spending is sustainable, and that taxes are kept reasonable and affordable. We aim to keep the demographic diversity that we have in town.
Aren't YOU concerned about the deficit we are facing next year?
Shouldn't we do something about it today?
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5 WH Responses:
I do not clearly understand how, if at all, reducing this year's budget will reduce a projected shortfall in next year's budget. Is the idea to save funds already in hand, such as the Blueback settlement money, for application to next year's budget (i.e., a "rainy day fund")?
Or is the idea that items that are expected to increase the shortfall should be cut or eliminated now?
Or is it simply, "we know that we are going to take a tax hit next year, and we shouldn't have to take one this year, too"?
I would appreciate some clarification. Thanks.
Kevin Walsh - If they don't reduce the budget by a lot more this year on the school side particularly, then they will truly have a slash and burn budget next year to make up for the projected $12.5 million deficit. The other option will be enormous tax increases.
The Mayor and Town Manager both know this, and it is the reason why they have been begging the BOE to curb spending these past two budget cycles. It is doubtful that they are going to get any concessions or givebacks from the unions to help them out either.
I moved to West Hartford for the Education - the quality. If I was looking for mediocre education for my kids I would have bought in a town with a lower mill rate.
The statement "the BOE budget has risen 61%"; how does this compare to the other WH departments? Fire, Police, WH employees, Services for the Elderly, trash?
To make it sound like the BOE budget is out of control, it is only fair to put it in perspective with every other department budget. My home electric bill and heating bill has more than doubled in that same time span, but I am not using more.
The article makes it sound as if BOE have received additional/increased benefits through the years. Isnt it that the cost of benefits i.e. health insurance has gone up in every sector - not just for BOE?
The cost of benefits I receive in the private sector over the same time span, also has more than doubled over the same time span, yet I have less coverage than I did 10 years ago.
With No Child Left Behind, the towns are left to pick up the costs of those mandates. How much of the BOE budget increase is directly tied because we MUST implement and support NCLB?
The increase costs in education should be shown fairly.
A Concerned Mom
"If they don't reduce the budget by a lot more this year on the school side particularly, then they will truly have a slash and burn budget next year to make up for the projected $12.5 million deficit."
It sounds to me like you are suggesting that we should opt for getting a head start on reductions that we would otherwise face next year. Is that correct?
Interesting figures - 61% increase in the budget over 10 years is about 5% annual increase; 35% increase in salaries is about 3% annual increase and 179% increase in benefits (i.e., health care) is about 11% annual increase. Frankly, I don't think a 3% annual salary increase is extravagant and I'm impressed that we were able to keep the overall budget to only 5% annual increases when faced with rising health care costs!
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