Town Council Votes For Another Tax Increase

The West Hartford Town Council voted and passed a 2.24% tax increase with its $216.7 million budget, bringing the mill rate to 38.38 mills.

Looks like it's referendum time in West Hartford.

There was one dissenting Democrat (council member Robert Durbin) and that was because he said that the budget didn't include restoration of curbside leaf collection, which was promised back in last November's election.

Here's some highlights from The Courant's story about the Council vote.

The new budget will take effect July 1, unless a referendum is triggered by petitions.

The current tax rate is 37.54, which means that a taxpayer is charged $37.54 for every $1,000 of assessed taxable property. Prior to the final changes, the proposed 2010-11 budget was $219.1 million, which would have required a tax rate of 38.91 mills, a 3.7 percent increase.

The reduced budget is possible because of nearly two dozen adjustments to trim $922,000 from the general government budget for 2010-11 and $1.5 million in long-term debt. To make some of the adjustments, the town is using a portion of the money from its $4.5 million Blue Back Square settlement to pay for some items. Among the biggest budget adjustments are an $825,000 payment to reduce school health benefit costs, a $465,676 payment to reduce town debt service, a $300,000 payment to next year's utility costs and a $100,000 cut in risk management insurance cost because of lower premiums.

The budget, which passed 8-1, does not have drastic cuts in services or programs, council members said. It eliminates 27 school positions and five town government positions. Some of the cuts involve already-vacant positions, and some will mean layoffs.

... The eight council members who voted for the $216.7 million budget said it is a lean plan that maintains essential town and school services and gives the taxpayers a rational blueprint for controlling costs.

... Other council members who supported the budget chided the school board for cutting its $121 million budget by only $24,000. School and town officials need to work closely to control costs, because the recession will continue to erode federal and state aid programs to cities and towns, Denise Hall, the Republican minority leader, said.

So the Board of Education only brought $24,000 in reductions to the table, after Town Manager Ron Van Winkle busted his butt to trim almost a million from the Town side. Van Winkle is to be commended, and the BOE.... well they are the reason why taxes will be going up.... again.

One can only wonder what will happen next year when this Board of Education will truly be in a hole when stimulus funding from Washington will be non-existent. They apparently do not believe in preparing for future budgets in a rational and sustainable manner. Such short sightedness is one of their hallmarks. The "education at any cost" crowd will again be pitting neighbor against neighbor in these very difficult economic times. They will trivialize the increase, despite the fact that expenses are going up for every household, and many are struggling to make ends meet... or at least wave at each other.

If a referendum petition drive does come into being, signatures must be collected and presented to the Town Clerk 4:30 on Friday, May 21st (which is 25 days). There are currently 38,252 registered voters, and according to Town Charter 6% of that number is what is needed to hold a referendum on the budget. That would be 2,295 verified signatures. It won't be difficult to obtain enough signatures from people who are fed up with the arrogance of the Board of Education.

See you at Stop and Shop.

West Hartford BOE Approves $126.7 Million Budget

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.