NEW FAIRFIELD — Following another failed attempt to move the proposed 2022-23 budgets forward, the Board of Finance will meet again next week to discuss and hopefully adopt a spending plan to present to taxpayers.
After failing to do just that last week, the board held a special meeting Wednesday night to try to find common ground and complete a final markup of the 2022-23 school and town operating budgets.
But following an hour of initial public comments and 2.5 hours of deliberation, board members once again could not agree on what to do with the nearly $13.3 million proposed selectmen’s budget and nearly $49 million proposed school budget.
As they stand right now, the school budget — which includes $38 million in operating expenses, $5.9 million in debt service from current school building project bonding, $4.9 million for medical insurance and $93,885 in capital contributions — reflects an 8.11 percent year-over-year increase, while the selectmen’s budget reflects a 3.15 percent increase.
Unlike last week’s meeting — which left several residents feeling disappointed and frustrated with Republican board members’ perceived unwillingness to listen or compromise — there was a greater effort to find common ground during Wednesday meeting.
Compromise is something Democratic finance board member Cheryl Reedy has pushed for.
“If there is a willingness on the part of both groups of three to find some compromise in the middle, I’m open to that,” she said. “We have a job to do, and we’ve got to get it done.”
Two motions were made during the board’s meeting last week — the first of which was to approve both budgets as presented and apply $1.2 million of bond premium to lower the mill rate increase to 3.68 percent. The other was to bring the mill rate increase to 2.89 percent by cutting $400,000 from the school budget and $25,000 from the selectmen’s budget.
Both motions, however, resulted in a 3-to-3 vote and failed to pass. The board’s three Republican members — Thora Perkins, Claudia Willard and Mark Beninson — voted against the first motion, while Reedy, fellow Democrat Wes Marsh and unaffiliated board member Mike Cammorata voted against the second.
In an effort to find some common ground, Marsh presented a new motion Wednesday — to approve both budgets as presented and use $1.4 million from bond premium to yield a mill rate increase of 3.3 percent. With Perkins, Beninson and Willard opposed, the motion failed by a 3-to-3 vote.
Beninson later made a motion to cut the selectmen and school budgets by $25,000 and $275,000, respectively, and use $1.2 million from the bond premium to bring the mill rate increase to 3.11 percent. That motion, however, also resulted in a 3-to-3 tie with Marsh, Reedy and Cammorata voting against it.
Marsh said he’s not in favor of cutting either budgets, especially after learning they have gotten “even leaner” as a result of inflation-related cost increases.
According to Finance Director Olga Melnikov, the town is facing deficits due to rising costs of things like oil.
“If things remain at the current level, we are facing a deficit of approximately $42,000 right now based on the current price versus our projections in the fiscal year 2022-23 budget as presented,” she said.
There are also cost concerns regarding two vehicle purchases included in the selectmen’s budget — one for the police department and the other for public works.
“We are experiencing the increased prices, so our budgets are coming up short for the purchase of the vehicles and there’s a potential deficit in that area,” Melnikov said.
Road-paving could also be affected if asphalt costs remain higher than they were when the selectmen’s proposed budget was put together.
“If things remain where they are, we should expect to pave fewer miles than we could have,” Melnikov said.
Marsh said he would rather get to Beninson’s proposed 3.1 percent mill rate increase by using additional bond premium instead of cutting the budgets.
“It would not leave holes — it would just mean we go into 2023-24 with our eyes wide open with a few less bond premium dollars to use,” he said. “We have $2.4 million to use and we don’t have to use it all at once — but we can use $1.4 or $1.5 million of it to get us to that number without cutting either one of the operating budgets.”
Reedy said she, too, has concerns about the impact the proposed cuts would have — especially on the school district.
“To be honest, I am more worried about the Board of Education’s ability to cope with these cuts than I am the town,” she said.
School officials say the proposed cut would compound a financial hurdle the district is already facing — a roughly $345,000 deficit due increased utility costs, higher-than-expected Shepaug Valley High School agriscience program enrollment and special education outplacement costs.
Having to find $345,000 in the budget already puts staff and programs at risk, Superintendent Pat Cosentino said, and an additional $275,000 cut would only cause further harm.
“There’s no way we’re going to find over $600,000 without cutting staff and programs,” she said. “It’s going to be staff, it’s going to raise class sizes (and) it’s probably going to take a teacher out of sixth grade.”
Cosentino said the talented and gifted program could also be impacted, and an administrator and secretary would probably be cut.
Although no motions were passed Wednesday, Reedy said she appreciated her fellow board members’ attempts to find common ground and believes compromise can be made at their next meeting.
The Board of Finance’s next meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. April 20.
