My comments are in Blue
– Theresa McGrath
By DANIEL P. JONES
Courant Staff Writer
June 28, 2007
The town council
Wednesday night cut more than $1.6 million from the spending plan rejected by
voters earlier this month and adopted a 2007-08 budget that leaders of the
taxpayers' group say they will not oppose.
The revised town budget increases spending by 2.66 percent; the resulting 4.54
percent property tax increase is due solely to the effect of townwide
revaluation. (Being facetious of course, according to
our Mayor and many of Dan Jones’ articles, we were only increasing taxes by
1.9%, prior to this budget cut. Hmmm. But, seriously though, why hadn’t
our Town Council and BOE not provided the public with a bare bones budget to
begin with; knowing that we would have a 5 year phase in property tax bill?)
The council added nearly $1.7 million in revenue to the budget. That revenue
will come mostly from town surplus and an anticipated settlement from the
state's trash authority, making a total adjustment of nearly $3.3 million from
the defeated budget. (This revenue is a similar issue
as the anticipated ECS funding our town had included in the previous adopted
budget, however had come as a shortfall of over $275,000. I mentioned to
Dan Jones that Town Attorney O’Brien had told me that
The council voted 8-0, with one abstention, to approve a budget that members
said preserves classroom programs, leaf collection, outdoor pools and senior
centers, among other things. (I hope the public truly
remembers these scare tactics for years to come. One thing our town had
left out of their proposed cuts was the miniature golf course and other Capitol
improvements ($16 million+) expected to be done in our town during this budget
cycle. Could they not have cut anything from this item of the budget?)
The budget increases user fees at pools, the ice rink and the
"It's incredibly lean, responsible and committed to our priorities of
education, services and safety," council member Shari Cantor said of the
new budget.
Cantor, who did much of the line-by-line work to revise the budget in
consultation with other council members over the past two weeks, said
revaluation had a more profound effect on property taxes than realistic
reductions the council could make in the budget. (They
worked off the same budget book we did…how could they have done a line-by-line
itemization of this budget?)
Mayor Scott Slifka, who presented the revised budget to the audience before the
council voted, said that without revaluation the revised budget would have
included no property tax increase. The 4.54 percent property tax increase -
which is based on phasing in 25 percent of the effect of revaluation in the
first of five years - is due solely to revaluation, he said. (But, we do have a property tax increase that is so high,
our town has to phase it in over 5 years).
The budget that voters defeated included a 3.48 percent spending increase. It
called for a property tax increase for homeowners of less than 2 percent but
when revaluation was factored in the increase was 6.6 percent, because the
revaluation shifted part of the tax burden from commercial to residential
properties. It was clear from the referendum, Slifka said, that residents
thought that number was too high.
The mayor said the board of education contributed a $500,000 reduction from its
previously adopted budget. But he said he has been assured by the board that
the reduction will be in administrative costs and will not affect classroom
programs. (Amazingly and coincidentally the Board of
Education had found $500,000 left over from an item in the budget from last
year. It had been a surplus in an account. Oddly enough, this is
what was cut from our Town Council Budget.)
Leaders of the West Hartford Taxpayers Association, a group that had forced a
June 12 referendum in which voters resoundingly defeated the council's initial
$203.3 million adopted budget, said they were pleased with the revised spending
plan.
Theresa McGrath, the group's president, said the association would not seek a
second referendum. "We are appreciative that the council has finally heard
the taxpayers speak. We're happy with the outcome," she said.
The council's six elected Democrats - Cantor, Chuck Coursey, Maureen McClay,
Art Spada, Slifka and Carolyn Thornberry - voted to approve the nearly $201.7
million spending plan.
Republican Barbara Carpenter and Joseph Verrengia, who recently switched his
party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, also voted in favor.
Republican Mark Sinatro abstained, saying he did not have a final list of
budget reductions before the meeting and couldn't make an informed decision. (I’m not sure I like the way Dan Jones quoted Mr. Sinatro’s
statement, but, the most concerning issue I have with this is that Mr. Sinatro
had not been given a fair chance to make an informed decision to represent his
constituency properly. I happen to agree with Mr. Sinatro, given that the
public has not had open dialogue or proper information to make truly informed
decisions about the budget. We experienced a handful of people who simply
wanted the budget increased for the sake of increasing the budget. This
is beyond ignorance not knowing exactly where the money is being spent.
It simply makes no sense what-so-ever. The WHTA picked through the budget
books with a fine tooth comb for both the town and board budgets to truly find
answers of where the money was going. All we were left with to do to
inform the public was to show the increases by departments as the town had
clearly printed in their budget books. Through some FOI’s we had found
hidden money, which lined the pockets of department supervisors; however, not
all our FOI’s were answered. The Hartford Courant was no help in that arena for
us.)
Contact Daniel P. Jones at dpjones@courant.com.
Copyright © 2007, The
Hartford Courant