The median spending increase for the 153 CT towns that have adopted budgets to date is 1.41%.  The Board of Education median spending increase is 1.58% for those towns.  West Hartford's Board of Education spending increase is a little short of three times as much as the median education spending increase of adopted budgets through 6/11/2010.

On the other hand, West Hartford's proposed tax rate increase of 2.24% is below the median effective tax rate increase of 2.63% for budgets adopted to date.  West Hartford is using more one time revenues for FY 2010-11 than other towns allowing it to propose a higher spending increase but lower tax rate increase than the typical CT town.  That should make for an interesting referendum vote in West Hartford. 

In measuring spending increases, I start with the originally adopted FY 2009-10 budget for each town.  If either the FY 2009-10 or FY 2010-11 budget does not include the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) portion of the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) Grant in the budget total, I add it to the total, so that all towns can be compared on a consistent basis. 

For West Hartford, I have the following: 

$212,571,688: Originally Adopted FY 2009-10 General Fund Budget Total

$123,306,323: Originally Adopted FY 2009-10 Education Budget Total

 The FY 2009-10 budget shows $16,076,120 of ECS funding, of which $2,293,500 was supported by ARRA funding.

$218,997,523 = $216,704,023 + $2,293,500: FY 2010-11 Proposed Budget Total

$128,966,118 = $126,672,618 + $2,293,500:  FY 2010-11 Proposed Education Budget Total

The FY 2010-11 proposed budget displays $13,782,620 of ECS funding and does not include the $2,293,500 in ARRA funding sent directly to the schools.

Based on the above numbers for West Hartford, the total proposed spending increase is 3.02% and the education spending increase is 4.59%The numbers in the West Hartford budget document are slightly different (2.98% and 4.35%) since they do not include the ARRA funding and perhaps the FY 2009-10 budget figures in the FY 2010-11 budget document may have been restated for other reasons too and possibly amended with other spending. 

The only other town with a referendum vote on 6/15 is North Haven, their second vote.  Their effective tax rate increase is about four times greater than what West Hartford is proposing but their proposed spending increase is less than West Hartford.

Bill Generous

Windsor, CT