Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti presented a $117,945,680 budget proposal for 2014 – 2015 Friday (March 21) he said would see property taxes remain flat year-over-year.
The mayor’s proposal, which will now be reviewed by the city’s tax board and Aldermen, would see the Board of Education receive $67,600,000, about $1.5 million less than the school board requested.
Board of Education Chairman Mark Holden said after Lauretti’s speech that the mayor’s proposal would not be enough to implement full-day kindergarten in the school district, and might even result in layoffs.
Lauretti said school officials “say the same thing every year.”
By The Numbers
The city’s current budget totals $115,828,907.
Lauretti’s proposal represents an increase of $2,116,773, or 1.8 percent, in year-over-year spending.
But the mayor said the city’s mill rate of 22.31 would remain the same if the budget he proposed Friday is passed by the Board of Aldermen.
“The economy has not improved since last year, and the job picture is probably worse in Connecticut this year, and more and more pressure is being put on our neighbors to pay more and more taxes,” Lauretti said.
The mayor’s full statement is posted in the video below. Article continues after the video.
“My budget concentrates on fiscal stability, focusing on the needs of the community and the ability of the city’s residents to make ends meet,” he said.
The city’s grand list increased slightly this year — 0.5 percent — but Lauretti predicted an uptick in development is “almost certain,” citing as an example the recent completion of the Avalon Shelton apartment complex on Canal Street.
The mayor hinted that further development at the former Spongex building next to the Derby-Shelton bridge and another site adjacent to that could be imminent.
In a familiar refrain, Lauretti emphasized the city’s relatively stable tax rate in recent years.
“Simply put, we are predictable, and predictably remain a city that is affordable from year to year,” he said.
Schools
The mayor said he has sought to provide “equity and fairness” to school funding while “keeping in mind that student enrollment continues to decline and the cost of services does not.”
The school board had requested an increase of about $3.5 million in funding. Lauretti’s proposal would see them receive a $2 million increase, or about 3 percent year-over-year.
Board of Education Chairman Mark Holden said after Lauretti presented his budget proposal that he was disappointed.
Asked if the $67,600,000 figure would be enough to implement full-day kindergarten, which a vocal group of parents has been demanding for about a year, Holden flatly said “No.”
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“As it stands right now the Board of Ed will work with whatever we ultimately end up with as an appropriation at the end of the day, but the mayor’s proposal is less than our rollover (costs) at this time,” he said.
“Realistically we’re probably about $500,000 short of where we need to be” just to maintain contractual obligations and fixed costs, Holden said.
He said Shelton students outperform students in more than 100 school districts in the state at the same time the city’s per pupil spending is only higher than 15 others.
“The Board of Ed is doing our part to deliver traditional Shelton value,” Holden said. “We’d like to be able to do full-day kindergarten, but there’s a limit to what we can accomplish if the city is not increasing our allocation as much as our expenses are going up.”
He said he hopes the school district “will be able to make a strong case” to the tax board and Aldermen to increase funding.
Will there be layoffs in the schools?
“Layoffs are a word you never want to use, but certainly it’ll be a challenge to prevent that,” Holden said. “I’m disappointed at where we are but I’m hopeful we’ll be able to make some inroads and progress.”
“They say the same thing every year. ‘It’s not enough, we have to cut,’ this and that. Come on,” Lauretti said.
Asked what he thought his proposal meant for the popular full-day kindergarten proposal, Lauretti was non-committal.
“I can’t tell them how to spend their money,” the mayor went on. “You give them money, they spend it on whatever they want and nobody says anything, it’s OK.”
“There are some people who are going to demonize me,” he added. “Let them do it, let them get it out of their system.”
