East Windsor Public Hearing On Budget Draws Few

The public got its first chance to comment on the proposed $34.98 million 2012-13 municipal budget at the East Windsor Board of Finance public hearing Thursday night. But only one took advantage of that opportunity.

About 20 people attended the hearing, where First Selectman Denise Menard and Board of Education Chairman Christopher Mickey made short presentations about their budget proposals.

Richard Morrison was the sole member of the public who shared an opinion of the budget with finance board members: keep sharpening your pencils.

“In this day and age, with this economy, to keep increasing the tax rate puts a burden on the taxpayers,” he said.

Morrison said in the past five years the value of his house has gone down and he thinks he would have trouble getting the assessed value for his home if he tried to sell now.

Menard said after the meeting she understood Morrison’s concerns.

“We are all taxpayers as well,” she said. “The treasurer and I work hard ahead of time to bring a fair budget to the Board of Selectmen and address the needs for running the town.”

“It is pretty unlikely this Board of Finance will say the increase as presented is acceptable,” Board of Finance Chairman Jason Bowsza said after the meeting. “We will work to find a middle ground that is more acceptable to more people.”

The combined proposed budgets total $34.98 million, an increase of $1.84 million over the current fiscal year.

The proposed budgets are expected to impact property taxes by increasing the annual tax on a property assessed at $100,000 by $149, and a property assessed at $200,000 by $298, based on 2011 average home assessed values.

During the hearing Menard said the town budget proposal is a 3.42 percent increase, which includes a 42.5 percent increase in the insurance and benefits line item that includes planning for upcoming retirement costs.

The capital improvement plan has also increased. The plan proposed as 30 percent more than the current year primarily because it includes funding to finish paying for a fire truck for the Warehouse Point Fire Department.

“This challenging year has taught us we either need to plan for emergencies and long-term costs or end up scratching for pennies when they happen,” she said.

Menard said the town’s $14.2 million budget is a level service budget, with no new positions or programs.

Mickey outlined some of the new programs the schools have started this year, including full-day kindergarten and a breakfast program. He said the school budget is also a “level service budget”. The proposed budget is $20.78 million, or 6.5 percent more than the current budget.

Finance board member Joseph Pellegrini also made a short presentation about the minimum budget requirements for the school budget as required by the state. Because of changes, the town had to increase the school budget this past year by $105,812 to be in compliance. If that had not been done the town would have been penalized in education cost sharing funds.

He said it is required by the state that the school budget cannot be lower than the previous year’s budget, including that stabilization funding, which brought the current budget to $19.51 million.

The Board of Finance will have workshops on the budgets on March 26, at 7 p.m. at Town Hall and on March 27, 29 and April 3 at 7 p.m. at Broad Brook Library. The public is welcome to attend the workshops, where the board goes over the budgets line item by line item.

There will be another public hearing on April 11, where the Board of Finance will present any revisions they have made to the budget.

After that the Board of Finance, Board of Education and Board of Selectmen will meet one more time to discuss any further changes before bringing a final proposed budget to town-wide referendum.