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Printed From Acorn-Online.com Wilton Bulletin
To a resounding chorus of nays and a smattering of ayes, the only motion made at the Annual Town Meeting on Tuesday night, one to cut the budget of the library and the teen center, was defeated. The motion, made by Milton Pohl of Hurlbutt Street, was the second such motion made by Mr. Pohl in the past three years. He proposed the Annual Town Meeting cut $50,000 from the library’s budget and $30,000 from the teen center’s budget. Mr. Pohl’s motion was seconded by Ed Papp of Walnut Place. “The library is a bloated bureaucracy,” said Mr. Pohl. He said the offices in the library are probably bigger than the entire libraries in Redding and Weston. He also said that earlier in the day he had visited the library and seen they were installing radiant heat on their entrance ramp, which he felt was unnecessary. “We’re paying more per citizen for the library budget than almost any other town,” said Mr. Pohl. He pointed to statistics he brought up at the public hearing on the budget last month, namely that Wiltonians support the library to the tune of $123.61 per person, while in New Canaan $78.76 is paid per person for the library and $34.42 per person is paid for the library in Weston. On the teen center, Mr. Pohl said other centers, such as the one in Darien, make do with a smaller contribution from the taxpayer by getting more money from donations. But other residents objected strongly to Mr. Pohl’s motion. “It is totally arbitrary,” said Doon Foster of Old Belden Hill Road. She said anyone wishing to criticize the library or teen center’s budgets should be willing to be a part of the effort to craft those budgets in the first place. “I think it’s really untenable to come in and say ‘Let’s just whack your budget by X number of dollars,” said Ms. Foster to a round of applause. “We really are not bloated, either with staff or space,” said Louise Herot, president of the Wilton Library Association. “It’s the one institution in town that really serves everybody.” Ms. Herot also noted the radiant heating project was being paid for by a gift. When the motion was voted upon, there was one or two ayes, with the rest of the meeting voting nay. The meeting, moderated by Robert Russell of Hemmelskamp Road, was attended by 160 Wilton residents, said Democratic Registrar Peggy Reeves on Wednesday. Of those 160 residents, 108 chose to vote on the budget and the bonding proposals after the meeting. Voting continues Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Middlebrook School gym. Mr. Pohl’s motion was the only item to draw comment on the Board of Selectmen’s budget. The selectmen’s budget is $28,754,092, a 4.7% increase from fiscal year 2008. The operating budget for the selectmen is $27,152,340, which represents a 5.8% increase from fiscal year 2008. First Selectman William Brennan explained the increases for the various town departments, such as a 6.7% increase for the Department of Public Works, a 16.2% increase for the Social Services Department, and a 15.9% increase for the Board of Selectmen. The 6.7% increase for Public Works was because of an increased subsidy for the transfer station. Mr. Brennan said that increased subsidy was necessary because of fees from the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority, the group that handles the town’s trash. The authority is taking more fees to cover deferred operating deficits and termination costs with the end of the town’s contract coming up. Mr. Brennan said the town was exploring new options for dealing with trash beyond that group. As for the Social Services Department, the increase is driven by the addition of a part-time employee there. And the Board of Selectmen’s budget increase includes $35,000 to fight the Federal Aviation Administration over its airspace redesign. If that $35,000 is taken out, the increase is 3.7%, he said. “We have a potential winnable situation if we fight and we must stay the course,” said Mr. Brennan of the fight with the FAA. For the next year, Mr. Brennan said the board hoped to: • Support energy savings programs and energy efficiency construction plans; • Continue working with the unions in town to keep long-term benefits costs down; • Continue plans for Comstock Community Center and develop a long-term plan for town hall, evaluating that facility and the options; • Keep up the pace on village improvements. “The Board of Selectmen believes we have a cost-effective budget for next year,” said Mr. Brennan. There were more questions for the Board of Finance. Robert Kelso, chairman of the board, said the town’s finances remain healthy and pointed to Moody’s Investor Services’ Aaa rating for the town. Mr. Kelso said while the mill rate is dropping from 24.23 this fiscal year to 19.31 in the coming year to pay for the budget, that didn’t mean taxes would be going down. Overall, the average tax increase is 2.85%. Because of the revaluation this year, residents’ tax increases will vary, he said. But without the revaluation, the mill rate to pay for the budget was calculated at 24.92, which is where the 2.85% figure comes from. As an example of how tax bills may vary, Mr. Kelso presented several real assessments and how the revaluation had affected those residents’ taxes. One resident whose property’s value had fallen since the 2002 assessment saw tax relief to the tune of 20.8%, while another resident whose assessment increased saw taxes increase 15.9%. The budget increase is driven by higher energy prices, increased contributions to the pension plan to ease the unfunded pension liability, expanded technology opportunities for the school and town, increased funding for special education and non-government organizations, and the increased transfer station subsidy, Mr. Kelso said. The town’s debt has been declining over the years, Mr. Kelso added. James McSweeney of Chicken Street asked how the town could have an unfunded pension liability and a Aaa rating. “They’re not worried about the ability of the town to pay that unfunded liability,” said Mr. Kelso of Moody’s. He said the town had been making contributions “over and above” the minimum to reduce the liability. Mr. McSweeney asked why the town didn’t just pay off the entire liability with the surplus. “We’d have to raise taxes too much,” said financier Warren Serenbetz. He said while paying off the liability right now might have been a decision a different finance board would have made, it was not the decision this one made, and “you don’t have the power to vote for us now,” drawing a laugh. “It’s not the sort of thing to play catch-up in one year,” added Mr. Kelso. Richard Ziegler of Fullin Lane asked if the board had considered locking in a price for gas based on the fact that projections show the price of oil continuing to increase. “We always book and lock in the previous year,” said Mr. Brennan. Eric Fanwick of Westport Road said while he was happy to see the town’s debt going down, “I’d be more impressed if I could believe in that number” remaining. He asked what the town could reasonably expect in terms of debt in the coming years. “Some projects will slip, some projects will be less” than their estimate, said Mr. Brennan after producing a copy of the town’s five-year plan. Among the projects on that plan are the high school renovation project and the Comstock Community Center project. Mr. Kelso said Moody’s believed the town could handle far more debt, up to $350 million, to which Mr. Russell responded with “we’d rather not,” drawing a laugh. Ken Dartley of Olmstead Hill Road asked the board to consider keeping the elderly tax relief committee active once a year to examine possible options for other relief that may have come up in the past year. He said the extra $15,000 budgeted for the coming year for the program was a “pittance,” though Mr. Kelso said the board expected there might be more people applying for relief because of enhancements to the program. “I don’t care what the number is. It increases the taxes on the remaining population. We have a program that certainly compares favorably with the other 30 towns that were analyzed” by the relief committee, Mr. Brennan said. He added the board would take Mr. Dartley’s suggestion under consideration. Mr. Pohl took issue with the Board of Finance’s drawing down more than $5 million from the fund balance to keep taxes low, as he said it was presenting a “fallacious picture” of what taxes might be in the future when that balance couldn’t be tapped. Mr. Kelso said it remained to be seen whether the board would need to continue to draw down from that fund in the coming years. There was only one comment made on the Board of Education’s budget, and it was a positive one. The board’s budget is $68,658,145, a 6.29% increase over this year’s budget. Karen Birck, chair of the Board of Education, said 4.6% of the increase was needed to continue current operations. She said the board had trimmed full-time positions that had been proposed to keep the budget down. As for the rest of the increase, she said “our needs are changing.” “We need to embrace change and innovation and strive for continuous improvement,” said Ms. Birck. She pointed to students’ continued success on both standardized exams and getting into the “most competitive” and “highly competitive” college categories as proof of the schools’ accomplishments. “This commitment to the arts by our schools is absolutely extraordinary,” said Steve Hudspeth of Glen Hill Road, mentioning a recent show of the students’ work at the library. There were two bonding resolutions presented, one for $500,000 for a new roof for the fieldhouse and one for $450,000 to pay an architect to draw up plans for the high school renovations. © Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers |
