The Darien Times

9% hike? After years of limited spending, selectmen face tough decisions

Written by Susan Shultz
Thursday, January 26, 2012 09:02 AM

The proposed budget is $42,290,583, an increase of $3,492,098 over the current fiscal year's budget. Included in that total is the town's debt service of $11,400,186 — 81% of that debt service, or $9,234,587 is school debt.

The debt service is increasing by $1,304,830. Out of the total debt service, new debt for the Shuffle adds $262,500, or makes up 2.3% of total debt service.

Kilduff told the Board of Selectmen that department requests were already reduced by $168,872, and the town operations budget has increased by 4.1% without capital and debt expenditures.

The largest operational cost center in the budget is Protective & Emergency, at $7.7 million. Public Works falls in next at $4.4 million, followed by the Darien Library at $3.3 million, Central Government at $2.9 million, Human Services at $1.3 million, Parks & Rec at $1.2 million and Community Environment at $600,000.

Kilduff added that the town employee benefit package is still being negotiated and will possibly go down before the budget's final vote in May.

He told the board that after four years of minimal cuts, all the "low hanging fruit has been picked."

"There is not a lot of room to maneuver or make easy cuts here," he said.

"We've been able to respond to a great number of challenges given that reduced funding. We're getting to the point where we can't sustain that level of service," Kilduff said.

Though costs are being cut and staffing is lower in response to challenging economic times, Kilduff said the problem the town faces is "expectations are out of step with resources."

"The public's expectations and demands are out of step with the plan," he said.

Kilduff said to keep the budget increase level as it has been means the board is in for "some painful decisions" and it needs to clarify where it wants the town to go.

In 2011, the current 2011-12 budget, the town started with a proposed 6% budget increase, ending up at an approximately 4% increase. In 2010-11, the increase was less than 2%, and the increase remained flat in 2009-10.

Earlier this month, the school district administration proposed a 5.6% or $4.3 million increase to its current year budget for fiscal year 2012-13, for a total budget of $80.6 million.

Last year, the Representative Town Meeting approved a total town spending package of $115.1 million, with the town side at $38.8 million and the schools at $76.3 million. The RTM set a mill rate for 2011-12 of 12.2, a 3.92% increase from 2010-11.

The current mill rate, or tax rate, represents a tax of $12.20 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

"Tonight this document stops being a staff document and becomes the board's," Kilduff said.

However, Kilduff advised the board to keep in mind that cuts of $100 here and there weren't going to make an impact on the mill rate.

As the value of 1 mill is $8.7 million, only cuts of at least $87,000 will result in an impact on the mill rate.

"You need to keep that amount, and how the town delivers services — what you expect us to deliver to the public — as you go through this budget process," he said.

In a statement to The Darien Times, Stevenson said that "sustainable" is the key concept driving the budget.

"We need to review the budget with a close eye to acceptable and sustainable levels that allow services to be delivered consistent with taxpayer expectations," she said.

Stevenson said the budget also reflects the town's decisions to address long deferred capital needs such as the police station expansion, Weed Beach makeover and the senior center move, which come at a cost to the taxpayers.

"Given the historically low cost of financing, I am convinced we were wise in our decisions to invest in our infrastructure at this time," she said.

Stevenson said that decisions to convert Town Hall, 35 Leroy Ave. and the police station to natural gas will also result in long term savings.

"Increasing pressure to limit the tax burden may require us to make difficult decisions about reductions in the services we provide," she said.

"As the first selectman, I work with my department heads to identify areas where we can deliver our services in more efficient and costs saving ways and our board will carefully prioritize any requested capital expenditures," Stevenson said.

The next Board of Selectmen meeting is Monday, Jan. 30 at 7:45 p.m.

More info: darienct.gov

sshultz@darientimes.com

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