The absence of Monday Night Football will not be missed when the Norwalk City budget becomes a political football. The BET will hold a meeting on the operating budget review.
Last year, the BET approved a $262.3 million spending plan for the current fiscal year, a $12.5 million, or 5 percent, increase on the previous year’s budget.
The 2007-08 budget required a $207, or 3.9 percent, tax increase, resulting in $5,458 in taxes for the owner of a median single-family home in the central Fourth Taxing District, where residents receive all city services. The previous year, taxes were raised 3.6 percent.
Mayor Richard Moccia, Common Council President Fred Bondi and BET Chairman Fred Wilms said their goal was to keep this year’s budget increase less than 4 percent again.
Wilms predicted a smoother budget process this year.
“There are always pluses and minuses . . . but overall, it should be more harmonious,” Wilms said. “The big change has been the Board of Education coming in with a much more reasonable 4.9 percent increase. Another positive is that we don’t have any reval impact this year. It was fully phased in last year.”
Last year’s budget season was marked by contentious negotiations between the Common Council and Board of Education over the school system’s requested 7.7 percent budget increase. Ultimately, the Common Council gave the schools a 3.8 percent increase, and the BET approved a special state aid appropriation, bringing this year’s total school spending increase to 4.5 percent.
“On the negative side, there are two challenges we’re facing,” Wilms said. “With the economy slowing down, there is concern that the conveyance tax may drop, and revenue will decrease because of fewer (property) sales. And because interest rates are going down, there is the concern that the investment income we’ve earned in the past will go down.”
In late December, Town Clerk Andy Garfunkel reported a downturn, especially toward the end of the year, in the number of land records filed for real estate transactions, including mortgages, deeds, mortgage refinancing and leases. There were 21,000 land documents filed for real estate transactions last year, down from 22,000 in 2006. In 2005 and 2004, Norwalk recorded 27,000 new land documents, representing the beginning of a downward trend after a high of 34,000 in 2003.
Despite the downturn, conveyance taxes collected on property sales outstripped the previous year’s collected revenue, buoyed by three large real estate transactions that garnered a combined $181 million for the city.
Public safety will be the major theme in this year’s operating budget, Wilms said.
“This year there is going to be a bit more focus on the whole crime area. I think there’s going to be a disposition to want to give the police more resources to help them fight crime and to help the fire department with fire and homeland security issues.”
This year’s capital budget includes $5.2 million to address storm drainage and $4 million for road reconstruction and paving, which addresses many of the infrastructure issues the city is facing, Moccia said.
The desire for a non contentious budget process is admirable. The reality is that there are still some major areas of concern with this budget.
One area continues to be the DPW budget. Mayor Moccia spent much time last year reviewing the actual expenses versus appropriations. I hope he continues to dig deep into the line items here, since the execution of road paving raises many flags. How are bids prepared, who is responsible for public safety during road paving, why are roads left ungraded for weeks, and how can Osborne Ave continue to be more rut than road over a year later? The Common council public works committee has yet to address any of these issues either.
The other area of DPW scrutiny should be on the revenue side. That is why isn’t the DPW department enforcing the obstructed sidewalks ordinance? It’s not just about snow, the number of sidewalks covered with trash and sand is significant.
The BOE budget presents its usual set of dilemmas. There are council members who desire a finance director. The votes are out there to block the approval of a BOE budget without a line item of a finance director. In addition there’s the growing frustration within the BOE with the support of Dr. Corda. It’s rumored that a vote of non confidence in his leadership is brewing with a split decision. Parents have been giving an earful to BOE members who don’t have their heads buried in the sand.
The increased staffing in public safety, the increased funding for infrastructure are all needs and should be encouraged. But a close look at 5 year Police overtime budgets should mean that a long term solution should be in place that increases safety while being cost effective. The reliance on temporary fixes in this department is troubling.
source: The Advocate, Norwalk kicks off budget process with BET, By Alexandra Fenwick, February 10 2008
