By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
Middlebury First Selectman Edward B. St. John presented a proposed 2015-16 $10.30 million town budget to the Board of Finance (BoF) at the board’s Feb. 11 meeting. The proposed budget is a $330,452 increase over the town’s current $9.97 million budget.
A handout at the Feb. 11 meeting said if the proposed budget were approved and if the Region 15 budget stayed flat other than the increase due to Middlebury’s changed percentage of students, the mil rate would increase to 29.39 from 29.34.
Since then, on Feb. 23, Region 15 Superintendent of Schools Regina Botsford presented a Region 15 budget with a 2.48 percent, or $1.58 million, increase. Middlebury’s Chief Financial Officer Larry Hutvagner said that increase would add $664,463 to Middlebury’s share of the budget and increase the mil rate to 29.99 if both budgets remained unchanged.
However, the BoF is holding a series of special meetings to determine ways to reduce the budget total, and the Board of Education is doing the same with the Region 15 budget.
At the Feb. 11 meeting, BoF Chairman Mike McCormack described the proposed budget as “a good start.” At the first of the special budget workshop meetings on Feb. 18, he thanked First Selectman Edward B. St. John for coming up with a “thoughtful” budget. However, he said he felt the budget increase of $330,000 needed to be reduced. “I don’t think it’s going to be a problem to come up with a $200,000 reduction,” he said.
McCormack said Middlebury’s per capita spending four to five years ago was $1,500. Now it is $1,345, but Middlebury is still 35 percent higher than its peer group of Southbury, Woodbury, Oxford, Washington and Roxbury. They all spend between $900 and $1,000 per capita, he said.
He went on to present to the BoF his thoughts on where reductions might be made, all the time stressing that these were just suggestions. Later, he asked BoF members to come to the next meeting with suggestions for reductions.
On the expense side of the budget, the largest reductions McCormack suggested were $20,000 less for fuel, gas and oil for police vehicles and $18,000 less in the capital budget for police car reserves. McCormack said the town has bought five new police cars during the past four years. He also suggested lowering the Contingency Fund by $7,500 and Debt Services Notes/Bonds Issuance Expense and Extraordinary Items Reserve for Contract Negotiations by $5,000 each.
St. John took exception to one cut McCormack made, a $2,738 cut to the town treasurer’s $4,720 salary. St. John said it is not within the realm of the Board of Finance’s responsibility to reduce the treasurer’s salary.
McCormack also suggested increases in some revenue categories, specifically a $5,000 increase in the assessor’s personal property audits, a $21,000 increase in the town clerk’s real estate conveyance tax collection and a $20,000 increase for police department special duty income.
McCormack raised the question of the town paying a portion of the cost of a resource officer Southbury provides for Pomperaug High School. St. John opposed this. “When we paid for full-time resource officers, Southbury never paid anything,” St. John said. He said he thought the cost should be wrapped into the Region 15 budget instead.
The BoF special meetings are held Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. in Shepardson Community Center, Room 26. McCormack said he expects the budget will be ready to go by March 11. A public hearing will be held April 6, and the budget referendum will be May 6.
