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Town's $108 million budget request heads to public hearings next week
Mar 27, 2008
Wilton residents will have one final chance to sway the Board of Finance before it votes on the budget and sets taxes for the coming year.
On Monday, March 31, and Tuesday, April 1, the financiers will be on hand at public hearings at Middlebrook School’s auditorium starting at 7:30 p.m. On Monday, the Board of Education’s budget request of $68,658,145, up 6.29%, will be the topic of discussion. Tuesday’s hearing will focus on the town’s operating budget request of $28,738,092, up 4.7%, and debt service payments of $9,105,582.
Also on the agenda Tuesday will be the requested bonding projects for the coming year, both of which are from the schools. One request for $500,000 would pay to replace the roof on the fieldhouse at Wilton High School. The other, a $450,000 request, would pay for design work for the high school renovation project, which is currently estimated on the town’s five-year capital plan at $24 million, although members of the committee reviewing the project have said a second, $12 million, alternative is also being considered.
The total town budget request stands at $108,181,837, up $6,103,661, or 5.98%. It would require, if left unchanged, a mill rate of 19.50 mills, or $19.50 in taxes for every $1,000 of assessed property.
Board of Education
The Board of Education budget had originally been presented by Dr. Gary Richards, superintendent, at $68.9 million, a 6.65% increase. During hearings in January, school board members were presented Dr. Richards’ request, and heard from members of the public.
While many residents asked the board to leave the budget where it stood, board members asked Dr. Richards to conduct a “6% exercise” to see what the budget would look like at only a 6% increase.
“Before we brought this budget to the board, we had already cut out half a million dollars,” Dr. Richards said when he came back to the board with his proposed 6.29% increase. “You start cutting away at some of the things that help you get better,” he said of making additional cuts.
Touting that the proposed budget was the lowest school budget increase in eight years, Dr. Richards said there were many drivers adding to the costs, including staff, fuel and technology.
The schools are asking for the addition of 3.02 teachers — the full-time equivalent when all positions are added together — at an increase of $224,814. Total staff salary at the schools would rise $1,769,269 to $42.7 million. Dr. Richards said 79% of that increase, or almost $1.4 million, was attributed to contracted salaries for certified teachers.
Wilton High School would add 1.16 teachers, and Principal Timothy Canty said the majority of that staffing would be devoted to academics, as the school’s enrollment was projected to rise by 40 students in the coming year.
Board of Selectmen
The Board of Selectmen’s original budget, which came in at $29.5 million, a 7.6% increase in requests from town departments, was cut by the board over a period of three months.
Among the items cut from the budget was $50,000 from the Wilton Library’s request of $2,413,855, which had been an 8.7% increase. The selectmen, when presented with the library’s budget, said they were “disappointed” with the requested increase and asked the library to go back and make reductions. The library returned before the selectmen at a later meeting, with members saying there were no areas where they were willing to make cuts.
By cutting the $50,000, the selectmen dropped the increase to 6.4%.
Library officials said they hoped to increase hours of operation with the budget request, but in a letter to The Bulletin after the selectmen had made the cut said they would not challenge the decision. During deliberations prior to cutting the library’s increase, First Selectman William Brennan had noted that the town’s agreed upon contribution to the library’s total budget had begun to creep up from 75% of the total to around 79% of the total and he hoped to reduce that percentage.
Other items cut from the selectmen’s budget were $90,000 for a training room at the Wilton Fire Department, $90,000 from the Wilton Police Department for a replacement cruiser and $46,000 from the Parks and Recreation Department for a leaf blower.
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