Board Of Selectmen Requesting $71.2 Million 2011-2012 Budget, Representing 1.48 Percent Increase (With Video)

The Board of Selectmen has approved a total town and Board of Education request for 2011-2012 of $71,254,315.00, which is a 1.48 percent increase over last year. That request now goes to the Board of Finance for further review.

Over the course of numerous budget sessions in recent months, the Board of Selectmen pared more than $600,000 from the amounts requested by different departments and agencies in town. Before the budget sessions, the total amount of the increase requested by different towns and departments would have resulted in a 6.29 percent over last year’s budget.

"Let's see, we started at 6.2 then went to 5, then 4.5, then 4 then 3.6 then 3.4 and today we're discussing 3.25," said Selectman Joseph MacDougal prior to the most recent budget workshop. "I've been involved in three budget cycles and this is by far the most vigourous review I've seen."

And, by the end of that budget workshop, the selectmen were below 1.5 percent, which was their goal.

Board of Education request of 0.78 increase helps keeps overall increase low

 The process of getting to a 1.48 was made easier by the which is only 0.78 percent higher than last year. The Board of Education is requesting $50,729,365.00, or $393,199.00 more than last year’s budget. That budget calls for a , according to Madison School Superintendent David Klein.

The town is requesting $20,524,951.00 or about $646,370.00 more than last year, which is a 3.35 percent increase. Most of the increase comes from items like employee benefits, pensions, utilities, and workers compensation, First Selectman Fillmore McPherson said in an interview.

He also said the town's capital projects fund is an important priority in the budget.

"We have 120 miles of roads, and they need to be rebuilt," he said. "Railroad Avenue has been rebuilt. We did the Bradley Corners Road bridge. This spring, we plan to do Overbrook Road, which is badly in need of being rebuilt."

Setting money aside for some projects, borrowing for others

McPherson said Madison prefers to set money aside to pay for maintenance projects like this, rather than borrowing, as some municipalities do. He said the town also sets money aside for planned purchases like firetrucks. "We do the prudent thing," he said. "We set aside money every year."

Madison did borrow to pay for the Griswold Airport parcel, which is being turned into a town park, and for the new Senior Center/Ambulance Garage, which is being built.

"The big gorilla in the room is the debt service on that," he said during the interview, adding that people in town voted in favor of those purchases. But, to mitigate the large payment due on that debt, the that would allow them to set up a reserve fund of $500,0000 too smooth the increase in debt service payments over three years.

"That will mitigate that somewhat," in terms of the impact on taxpayers in town, McPherson said.

Madison Police Department asked to make further cuts

 The Madison Police Department had , a 5.8 percent increase over last year’s budget. Police Chief Jack Drumm said the majority of that increase, or 4.5 percent, is due to wage-related contractual obligations. He added that the actual fiscal year 2011-2012 increase is $152,376.55, when you consider that the previous year’s budget understated wages by $63,841.65 because the town budget was not approved until June 2010.

Still, the selectmen asked Police Chief Jack Drumm to pare $69,000 from his original request.  During a recent budget workshop he politely made the argument that cuts at that level would lead to the elimination of the town’s Community Service Officer and said the CSO should be retained at a cost of about $6,000 because the CSO helps bring in revenue of $12,900.  The selectmen ultimately agreed to retain the CSO position, bringing the reduction in the police department request to about $63,000.

In order to accommodate the money required for the Community Service Officer and still come in with an overall budget increase of no more than 1.5 percent, the selectmen agreed to pare that amount from the Visiting Nurse Association request.

Drumm also made the argument that maintenance for police department uniforms be included at a cost of about $9,000. He said that the uniforms need to be professionally laundered or they can be ruined. He said police officers pay for that now, unlike other town department employees, such as those in the public works department, who have maintenance of their uniforms provided for them. While that item was not restored to the police budget, Drumm said he would not be surprised if it came up in negotiations with police officers next year.

McPherson concerned about cuts to reserve funds

 McPherson said he was pleased that the increase is only 1.46 percent but he said he was concerned that the board was able to do that only because cuts were made to several reserve fund accounts. He said the reserve funds are put aside every year as a buffer against contingencies and unexpected expenses.

 “Those reserve funds, which do not expire at the end of the year, are part of responsible, fiscally responsible planning,” he said. “They are part of what make Madison different from the states of Connecticut and California. We pay as we go. It’s only because of short-term hardship that we are reducing those reserve fund levels. As soon as the economy recovers, we are going to have to start jacking those up again.”

 Overall, McPherson said, the goal of the selectmen was to produce a budget request that provided for no more than a 1.5 percent increase. “The feeling of the board was that we had to get to that point,” he said.