By DANIEL P. JONES
March 12, 2008
— Town council members
wore glum faces Tuesday night as the town manager presented an annual budget
for 2008-09 that he said wouldn't do much more than maintain existing programs
but would increase spending by nearly 7 percent from the current budget.
Mayor Scott Slifka, who leads the six-member Democratic
majority, and Republican Minority Leader Leon Davidoff
agreed that the town manager's $216 million budget is merely a starting point
for what will be tough deliberations.
"It's very sobering to see what a maintenance budget would cost, especially
in light of the continued phase-in of the revaluation," Slifka said. "So we have a lot of difficult choices to
make over the next six weeks."
Given rough economic times, Davidoff said, "we're going to have to ask
difficult questions and to make difficult decisions, and hopefully at the end
of the day we'll be able to adopt a budget that the taxpayers can afford."
The council scheduled public hearings on the proposed budget for March 27 at 2
p.m. and April 3 at 6 p.m. Both hearings will be held in the town hall
legislative chamber.
Town Manager Jim Francis presented an overall education, municipal and capital
budget that would increase spending by about $14 million, up from the current
2007-08 budget of about $201.7 million.
The spending plan includes Superintendent David P. Sklarz's
proposed $125.5 million budget, a 6.5 percent increase from the current school
budget of $117.8 million.
Francis' proposal also included a $73.4 million municipal budget, which also
represents a 6.5 percent increase over the current $68.9 million budget.
Spending for capital items, such as a police and fire department radio
communications system, elementary school projects and replacement of the pool
at
Most of the major budget increases are driven by already negotiated staff
salary increases and increases in benefits, such as health insurance and
pension costs, according to the proposal.
Francis' proposed budget calls for a property tax rate of $38.11 for every
$1,000 of assessed value. The town plans to continue to phase in the effect of
a 2006 revaluation that showed a shift of the tax burden from commercial to
residential property owners — when assessed value of homes rose
an average of 77 percent while the assessed value of commercial property rose
an average of 49 percent.
In the current budget — the first year of the phase-in — the town accounted for
25 percent of the effect of the revaluation. The next budget will be the second
year of the phase-in, and will account for 25 percent of the remaining 75
percent of the effect.
Each homeowner's tax increase will be different, and it will have to be
calculated based on the effect the phase-in will have on assessed value,
Francis said. "No one gets the same tax increase," he said,
"because of revaluation."
For example, a house with a market value of $200,000 and an assessed value of
$140,000 before revaluation has an assessed value in the first year of the
phase-in of $175,000. Under Francis' proposed budget, the assessed value would
be $193,200, and the annual property tax would rise by about $603, or 8.9
percent, from about $6,760 to about $7,363.
About 63 percent of West Hartford homeowners would see a tax increase of 10
percent or less, and 37 percent would see a tax increase greater than 10
percent, under Francis' proposed budget.
Francis said he expects to put the proposed budget and a chart for calculating
the tax effect on the town's website as soon as possible, perhaps by the end of
the week.
West Hartford Taxpayers Association board member Elliot Check said that the
group was just starting to review the proposed budget. "Right now, we
don't know what a fair budget would be," he said after Francis presented
the proposal.
However, he characterized the proposal as kicking the taxpayer while down.
"It's running a 10 percent tax increase for the average homeowner in the
town," Check said.
Last June, the town council cut more than $1.6 million from a spending plan
that voters rejected in a referendum and adopted a 2007-08
budget that increased spending by 2.66 percent; a 4.54 percent property
tax increase was due solely to the effect of the 2006 revaluation, officials
said.
At the time, council members, who voted 8-0 to adopt the current budget, said
the spending plan preserved classroom programs, leaf collection, outdoor pools
and programs for senior centers, among other things. The current budget
increased user fees at pools, the ice rink and the