Although failing to meet with a quorum, the Finance and Claims Committee indicated that the BOE request for an 8.3% budget increase was not going to fly. According to a Norwalk Advocate article, Common Council member Doug Hempstead led the discussion in the direction of cutting the BOE request “They’re asking for too much,” he said. From the Norwalk Adovcate:
The three committee members at the meeting expressed support for increasing the amount for the Department of Public Works next year to address storm drainage problems that cause flooding in numerous parts of Norwalk.
The Board of Estimate and Taxation controls line-item allocations in the operating budget; the Common Council sets a spending cap.
The finance committee will meet again Monday to recommend a cap to the full council, which will set a preliminary ceiling Tuesday.
Hamilton recommended a $264.6 million city operating budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, a 5.9 percent increase over this year’s spending level.
Under Hamilton’s proposal, property taxes would increase $291 to $5,542 for the median single-family homeowner in Norwalk’s central Fourth Taxing District, where residents receive all city services. The increase represents a 5.5 percent tax hike.
In a Norwalk Hour article Hempstead pointed out that the school enrollment projections showed a declining enrollment. From The Hour:
“My school of thought is 3.8 percent, and the additional money should go to (fix) flooding and any other city services. I think cops should be a priority after the flooding issues,” Hempstead said. “I’m simple — take it out of the Board of Ed and give it to them.”
Residents of East Norwalk where flooding problems have become more prevalent were critical of the budget recommendations on the table. Obsolete vacum trucks were cited as a critical need, yet remained out of the bidget. From The Advocate:
Hempstead said the council should send a message to the BET that any reductions it makes to recommended spending increases should be in the school board’s budget.
Hempstead asked Hamilton how much money the Board of Education would lose if it received a budget hike of 3.8 percent, the area’s cost-of-living increase last year, instead of 4.5 percent.
Hamilton said the move would reduce the budget increase the school board would receive by about $954,000.
Hempstead said he would prefer using some of the money to address staffing shortages in other departments, such as the DPW and Police Department. Since Norwalk’s school enrollment is declining, the Board of Education should be seeking smaller spending hikes each year, he said.
Finance committee Chairman Carvin Hilliard, a Democrat, said the city’s infrastructure has been neglected. Hilliard said he supports public education but said city funding has shifted significantly toward the school board in recent years. It’s time to restore balance, he said.
Committee member Gwen Briggs, a Democrat, said the city’s neglect of its storm drainage infrastructure is hurting residents. If money must be taken from other departments to bolster DPW funding, Briggs suggested looking at the school board’s proposed budget.
Norwalk School enrollment has hovered around 10,000 for the past 15 years. Each year the BOE requests increased funding that largely fails to go to classroom instruction, and ends up bloating administration operations. For too long, the BOE has failed it’s fiduciary duty to constrain spending. Norwalk’s operating budget skews heavily to the BOE, representing about 70% of the total. Part of the recommendation to the full Common Council should include a requirement that the BOE obtain a Finance Director and created budgets that show a decrease in spending.
Source: Panel calls for boost to DPW funds, Matt Breslow, Norwalk Advocate, February 23 2007 Source: Committee eyes cuts in school spending, By Robert Koch, The Hour, February 23 2007
