School Board's Purse $675,000 Lighter For Referendum No. 2

The Town Council on Tuesday wrestled with the budget numbers.

Then school officials wrestled with their emotions.

And after the budgetary grappling was over about four-and-a-half hours after it began, the council had taken an additional $675,000 out of the Board of Education's request for the 2013-14 fiscal year.

The bottom line heading into referendum No. 2 on May 21 is now $81,799,460.
Of that, after Mayor George Apel's initial cut of $1.5 million and the council's further trimming on Monday, the school board's proposal is at $49,494,787.
"Here's your headline - blood-letting and shock," one school official said after the meeting.

Most of the reaction by school officials involved the latter. Many of them were left speechless.

"This is going to be devastating if this passes," Board of Education Chairman Dean Houle said. "It means staff and programs will be cut."

Capital improvement and debt service totals $5,909,670 and general government $26,295,003.

This year, the three major categories total $48,180,997, $6,245,796 and $26,172,367.

This year's budget totals $80,599,160.

The council had to revise the numbers after a referendum last Tuesday in which residents and taxpayers rejected the $82.6 budget proposal as 839 folks voted no and 649 voted yes. It was a low turnout considering there are 16,264 registered voters in town. Those who own more than $1,000 in assessed property were also eligible to vote.

The mayor kicked off the night by telling council members that he had asked municipal department heads to re-examine departmental budgets and come up with 1 percent worth of cuts, even though they had already come in with no increases.

That amount totaled $102,991.

Council member Adam Weissberger moved to restore the 1 percent cuts to the $5.8 million police account.

Police Chief James Kenny came to the podium and said he was not happy with the situation, but added that since items like bullet-proof vests, the Explorers program and the unmarked car leasing program would still have enough to operate, he could "live with" the additional reductions.

The council settled on municipal-side cuts of $92,991.

"We're trying to minimize Board of Education cuts - or not cut education at all - by reducing town side," Deputy Mayor Brian Motola said while speaking for the Republican majority.

Democrat Michael Winkler said that, "Chipping away at budget items that do not have any impact on mill rate … is a lot of time and energy for an almost meaningless amount of money."

Apel said, "A dollar here and there adds up to real money."

The Republicans went after what they consider to be heavily subsidized social service agencies than can still operate with small cuts because of fund-raising capabilities. For example  MARC of Manchester, a regional agency that serves those with developmental disabilities, has a budget of $7.5 million, council members said.

Here are some of the cuts, mostly passed along party lines:
• A child guidance clinic account was cut by $5,500.
• A child abuse prevention family enrichment program was reduced from $8,000 to $4,000.
• ARC was cut by $3,500.
• MARC was cut by $2,000.
• A Connecticut Legal Services account was left with a buck after a cut of $4,499.

Democrats argued that it was, "a poor assumption to assume everyone is going to have fund-raisers. This is picking on poor people who can't speak for themselves."

Weissberger, who was unhappy throughout the proceedings and called the decisions "painful," said "These there are good services but voters have sent a clear messages to us and decisions have to be made."

Other cuts on the municipal side included:
• A reduction to town planning fees and memberships of $860 for the Friends of Valley Falls ($500) and Friends of Connecticut ($360) membership dues.

Motola said he would increase his donations to Valley Falls. Democrat Virginia
Gengras, the president of the friends, took umbrage with the vote and reminded the council about the group helped save a historic property on the parcel.

Apel called a "cooling down" recess. After coming back into session, Weissberger said, "If we look at every account there will be a connection to someone, but we need to try to keep a core-level of services this town needs and still get to a number the voters want us to get to. I think that's what we're doing."

Added council member Bill Campbell, "I have a hard time taking money away from the people of this town and giving them to charities. If someone wants to donate to a charity that person can make donation. These are not significant sums."

Republicans reduced the municipal contribution to town-wide celebrations by $5,000 to a total of $10,000.  
Winkler moved that an account for non-union executive office merit rewards totaling $6,000 be reduced to $1, "knowing we might be able to get money later - money I expect from the state and the administration doesn't."

"I think town staff members will perform meritoriously even if they do not get merit pay for a year," Winkler said. The motion passed 11-1.
The Board of Education was next and a motion was thrown on the floor to knock off another $1.5 million.

Weissberer, who said he did not support motion, used the motion to ask about the school system's current status.

As part of a deficit mitigation plan that includes creative programming, a hiring freeze and a spending freeze, what was once deficit projected to be near $1 million has been reduced drastically and the school board will be drafting a letter asking the town for an amount not to exceed $200,000 from insurance savings.   

Superintendent of Schools Mary Conway said about $137,000 should be needed.  
School board member Kyle Percy said class sizes would go up up with if a second $1.5 million is lost.

"Programs like arts and music and gifted and talented … will not be there. It will be be detrimental to the schools," he said.  
School officials are still trying to determine how to cut the final $385,000 as part of the mayor's initial reduction.

Winkler asked what happened to claims some council members made to put money back to the schools after taking it out of the town side.

"And the board of education budget should get out of here unscathed … if everybody lives up to their word," he said.  

Percy said, "This is what we need to pay our bills. "We do not no have any fluff in our budget and still have 385,000 in cuts to go (per the mayor).”

Council Democrat Thomas DiDio, who is running for mayor, complemented Apel on his initial cut, but also said that was enough.

"We are not looking at the people who can't vote - the children," he said. "The mayor did a fine job in cutting the budget already. think we cannot take another $1.5 million out."

The motion failed with Steven Peterson and Daniel Sullivan voting for it. But a second motion was put on the floor to take out $800,000. That one passed, but then $125,000 was put back in and a consensus was reached to add two-tenths of a point to the assumed tax collection rate, a move worth about $60,000 at 98.3 percent collection.

The May 21 referendum is scheduled for Center 735 on Hartford Turnpike.