By Matt Breslow
Staff Writer
February 13, 2007
NORWALK - City spending would increase 5.9 percent next fiscal year, including a 4.5 percent hike in the Board of Education budget, under a plan Finance Director Thomas Hamilton proposed yesterday.
Under Hamilton's recommended operating budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, property taxes would rise 5.5 percent for the median single-family homeowner in Norwalk's central Fourth Taxing District, where residents receive all city services.
Hamilton said his proposed budget, which he presented last night to the Board of Estimate and Taxation, maintains existing services and staffing and includes no major spending initiatives.
"I think it's a good starting point," Republican BET Chairman Fred Wilms said after the meeting.
But a 5.5 percent tax hike is too high, Wilms said, and the rate must drop below 5 percent.
The Common Council will adopt a spending cap this month. The BET will hold a public hearing before recommending a budget to the council in April.
The council can adjust the cap before the BET approves a budget in May.
Hamilton's budget includes three new positions, restores funding for two firefighter vacancies and allots money for part-time employees to open the South Norwalk library branch on Saturdays and staff the main library's new teen room.
The recommended budget includes $250,000 for storm drain cleaning. Hamilton said there is significant concern about drainage, although he distinguished between the operating budget item he proposed and projects to address neighborhood flooding included in his proposed capital budget for next fiscal year.
The plan includes $100,000 to study creating a citywide power authority, an idea the Common Council created a committee to explore, Hamilton said.
Without considering the effect of finishing a four-year phase-in of October 2003's property revaluation, Hamilton said the tax increase stemming from his recommended budget is 4.6 percent.
Taxes would rise an additional 2.55 percent if the city agreed to fund the school board's request for an 8.27 percent operating budget increase.
In all, city departments requested $277.3 million for next fiscal year, an 11 percent increase over the current operating budget of $249.8 million.
The amount of taxes the city must collect would increase 12.1 percent if all the requests were granted, compared with 6.1 percent under Hamilton's plan.
Hamilton told BET members that Mayor Richard Moccia made it clear to him a 12 percent tax increase would be unacceptable.
Hamilton's proposed $142.5 million operating budget for the school board next fiscal year would be a $6.1 million increase over this year's allotment.
Including education-related expenses on the city side of the budget, such as debt service for a sweeping school renovation project under way, his plan raises education spending by 6.6 percent, Hamilton said.
The Board of Education last month requested a $147.7 million operating budget for next fiscal year.
The city's debt service will increase 13.2 percent to $23.5 million next fiscal year, mostly because of the school renovation initiative.
Among three new positions, Hamilton recommended creating an emergency planner for the fire department, splitting the vacant position of disaster response coordinator and emergency dispatch director into two jobs.
After the September departure of Michael Dolhancryk, the last person to hold the job, the city unsuccessfully tried to replace him and decided it was asking one person to handle too much, Hamilton told the BET.
Moccia, a Republican, said the city doesn't have enough money to hire an emergency dispatch director and someone to fill the new position Hamilton recommended.
Existing employees will oversee emergency dispatch, Moccia said. "We're concentrating on the emergency-preparedness end in this budget," he told BET members.
The Department of Public Works sought nine new positions next fiscal year, but Hamilton recommended only one - a fleet mechanic.
The position was eliminated a few years ago, but restoring it would address police department concerns about turnaround time on its vehicle repairs, Hamilton said.
The third new position Hamilton recommended would work in the personnel department, which is being reorganized after a new director took over last year.
Hamilton proposed restoring funding for two of the city's eight firefighter vacancies.
Keeping some positions open and paying overtime to fill the staffing voids is cheaper than hiring more firefighters, he said.
But Hamilton said the fire department is concerned that having eight vacancies could create trouble when many firefighters retire in the next several years.
Norwalk's state aid is expected to drop $1.2 million next fiscal year. But Hamilton said Gov. M. Jodi Rell's proposal to overhaul the Education Cost Sharing formula could increase the education assistance Norwalk receives from the state by $2.8 million.
Another factor is whether the state will allow a real estate conveyance tax increase to expire June 30.
The legislature has extended the tax hike in previous years, but if it lapsed, Norwalk could lose more than $1 million, Hamilton said.
The city would use $3 million, double this year's amount, of its fund balance of cash reserves under Hamilton's proposed spending plan.
Norwalk still would have a fund balance of $24 million at the end of next fiscal year, well above the level bonding agencies want to see, he said.
Copyright © 2007, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.