Democrats Propose Alternative Budget

Wolcott’s Town Council approved a budget Tuesday night, but not without Democrats offering an alternative proposal.

The Board of Education’s proposed $31,470,976 budget which includes a $191,000 increase (0.61%) emerged unscathed and neither Republicans nor Democrats had much comment on it. Instead, Mayor Dunn’s $17,512,688.37 proposal became the focus of discussion even though it is already 6.0% ($1,115,854.55) lower than this year. Even with the overall expenditures reduced, the budget still faced an approximate $100,000 gap because of falling revenue. Wolcott will be receiving less money in State paving, plowing and other grants because of the State budget crisis. In addition, the Town’s grand list has remained stable and some tax payers are finding it difficult to pay their due.

Democrat David Gentile proposed an amended budget which would keep the Education budget the same, but reduce the Mayor’s town budget by $73,571. Their proposal includes a 0.01 mill decrease. They accomplished this by adding $100,000 into the expected back property taxes (to $750,000) and estimating a 98.33% collection rate. Below are the proposed budget reductions by the Democrats:

Town Council To Set Mill Rate 6/2/09

Tommorow night the Wolcott Town Council will set the town’s mill rate. Alot of planning and discussion has gone into this final meeting. Here’s what to expect:

The Town’s budget will be trimmed by about $3,000.
The Board of Education’s budget will be passed without change.

With some adjustments in the back tax and upcoming tax collection rate, it is expected that the town’s mill rate will remain the same as this year’s. There are also one or two other factors that figure into the ability to keeping the mill rate stable that have assisted us to do so.

During last week’s workshop a discussion took place between the Mayor and incoming Superintendant about how Wolcott will be receving money from the Federal Government. Already, the State has cut Wolcott about $30,000 in Educational Cost Sharing grants for this year. This type of adjustment is not unusual from time to time. Thankfully, it wasn’t any cost greater than this.

During the Board of Education’s budget hearing, the Council was informed that an attorney examined carefully what we could legally use the Federal stimulus money for. This was identified and sent to the State Dept. of Education as an official request. Becuase that money needs to be sent directly to the Board of Education though, it won’t go throgh the town finance office as other grants usually do. For accounting purposes, this is important because according to the Town Charter and State Statute, it is the Town Council’s legal authority to decide how much money is allocated to the Board of Education.

The mayor and superintendant related what was discussed at various meetings they have had in Hartford and it appears that they were both given two slightly different formulas with the same result. I personally called Sen. Sam Caligiuri’s office and they confirmed that Wolcott will be funded at a level equal to this year. This was the biggest concern, particularly with the troubles the legislature has been dealing with in the State budget. Rep. Corky Mazurek also confirmed that whatever the final budget plan will be, every town will be level funded. This past Friday I witnessed Sen. Caliguiri questioning Sen. Gaffey of Meriden on the Senate floor on whether a bill passed that night would include this stimulus money. Gaffey confirmed it did, although I had difficulty finding this language iwhen I skimmed through the lengthy bill they were discussing. I will check this bill again.

Someone at the Budget Workshop did raise a point that only Connecticut and South Carolina have requested a certain use of this stimulus money in the way it is intended to be appropriated, and South Carolina was denied in its intention. I’m still unclear on what this is, but will welcome any more information about it. At this point, I’m happy to have the assurances of our State legislative delegation and the Governor that the Town will be level funded from last year.

Because of the level funding from the state, the reduction in the Town budget, some tough decisions made by the education department, the mill rate will be the same as this year, resulting in no tax increase. A few other towns in the area have also been able to achieve no tax increase, but at a steeper cost to services. Others have raised their mill rates slightly. While this will not be an easy year, I hope a stable mill rate will be somewhat welcome relief to taxpayers facing challenges of their own.

Town Council Holds Budget Workshop

Tuesday the Wolcott Town Conucil held a workshop to review its budget. The newspaper had an article the next day saying “Police and Fire Budgets Criticized”. The headline was overstated the cordial discussion that actually transpired. Present that night were the nine members of the Town Council, Mayor Dunn, Superintendant Macary, both the business and finance managers of the Board of Education and Town, Town Clerk Debbie Slater, and one member of the public. There are no minutes kept at this meeting because it is a workshop and the rules for discussion are more informal than if it were a regular meeting. This allows for more open discussion and questioning between Council members and those in the audience with particular expertise, particularly the business and finance managers.

The reporter arrived just after an opening statement by Chairman Mark Wagner, and left just before perhaps the most important discussion of the meeting dealing with the balancing of the budget.

The first half of the discussion included areas explored for clarification in the Town budget. Some members asked if certain items could be cut or eliminated in such a tough economic year. These included delaying the purchase of a fire truck, police cruisers. As reported, the fire engine at Co. 1 has difficulty getting up to reasonable speed even on a straight roadway. The Fire Department also has a lease on equipment which shifts from one unit to the other as they are replaced or refurbished. One question was asked about the library repairs, which need to be done this year. Some minor line items were examined with the Emergency Planning Commission and those likely will be only lines to be reduced.

As reported, Dave Gentile suggested that the town look at how we spend computer funding. Only recently has the town had an official website, e-mails, and various offices have been interlinked by a new server in the past year or so. There’s still quite a bit of work to do to upgrade the town website and to allow things such as GPS of assessment records. The Board of Education has on site tech support which he hope to work with in the future so that we can make informed and enhanced improvements. One of the enhancements to the Town websites is the ability to look up meeting minutes. The website is www.wolcottct.org. The Board of Education has a website at www.wolcottps.org .

Welcome, Wolcott citizens!

     In the past 3 years, the Town of Wolcott has relied upon the Waterbury Republican American newspaper for its news. Supplementing the daily, a contributor- supported monthly paper called the Wolcott News has also provided some additional outlets for letters to the editor and youth activities.
     As the economy falters, the State of Connecticut has more problems, and we all go about our daily lives, the glue of information has become stale and something needs to connect us back together. I’m hoping that this blog – with articles covering a wide variety of subjects can rope us in and tie us together again. Only armed with information can we make connections and improve our hometown for the future. As we get off the ground, I intend to write periodic articles from my perspective. I hope that we can add perhaps two contributing writers as well. And of course, you the reader will be able to comment on everything.
     As you comment, feel free to provide leads, suggestions, ideas and news you’ve heard. This blog will then become yours. I won’t be surprised if, on occaission, controversy may arise from discussions here. All I ask is this: Any contributions and comments should be factual, properly attributed and non- incendiary. “flaming” will be regulated.

     For now, comments will be open and I invite your suggestions. Feel free to contact me personally at (203) 558-5817 or cobrien7 (at) hotmail.com

Pssstt… The Whisper Begins!

Well, here we are. Wolcott has its first (known) blog on the internet!

It has been my hope to start an online newspaper for some time. At some point I’ll learn to add photos and other fancy things to this large square papyrus paperweight. Because I have a fulltime job, I know keeping this little news source up to date will be a challenge. At times, I might also be too involved with the news for my own good. That’s why I invite you to become a reporter for various news events around town. You can choose the event, and write as often or as little as you can. As long as you can write fairly well, I’ll include it here. Even if you can only get a few quotes and a good story together, we’ll work on the article. General commentary will be written and accepted on occassion, but because there’s plenty of room to make comments, my hope is we’ll stick with general news. In fact, your ability to comment is one of the reasons this is online. I hope that you will give praise, ideas, insight or even an occaissonal piece of wit or offbeat remark to create a dialogue with myself and our neighbors.

While this blog will include major “hard” boring news like politics and police reports, I hope we can also feature local restaurant and business profiles, retirements, a general calendar and whatever readers can contribute in a journalistic way.

Whew, this sounds like alot of work and stuff. At the moment I know how to put words on a screen. The next step: pictures. (Gosh, what did I get into!)

 

Todays news:  Bear siting on Winterbook Rd., and then a second bear siting on Wolcott Rd. as far south as Wolcott Lanes. This was reported at about 11:30 this morning. That has to be two different bears… Have a siting ? Report it here!