The Shelton Board of Apportionment and Taxation passed along its 2011 – 2012 budget proposal — with two recommendations — to the Board of Aldermen Thursday.
The $111.9 million budget proposal keeps the same tax rate — 18.57 mills — proposed by Mayor Mark Lauretti in February.
The recommendations call for the city to create a “designated reserve” fund, and use left-over unemployment money from this year to bolster the Board of Education’s operating budget next year.
Tax board chairman Mark Holden presented the plan to the Board of Aldermen at a brief meeting Thursday. From there, the Board of Aldermen will review the proposal, possibly make changes, and host public hearings on the plan before voting on a final budget in May.
The proposal keeps in tact a tax decrease that, if approved as proposed, would result in about $8 less on a tax bill for a home assessed at $200,000.
The Details
The tax board reviewed Lauretti’s proposal and tweaked some spending.
For example, the Board of Apportionment and Taxation added $15,000 to the fire department’s alarm maintenance fund and $10,000 to its turnout gear fund.
“Quite frankly, it makes sense to have a ready supply of turnout gear coming in at all times,” Holden said. “Also, they mentioned there is one firefighter who is quite tall and they didn’t have anything to fit him.”
The proposal also removed money from the Girls Scouts and Barnum Festival — two programs that don’t usually spend the full amount allotted, Holden said.
And the tax board lowered the allocation for the Valley Council of Governments, which had requested a large increase from $17,000 this year to $44,000 next year. The tax board budgeted for $18,000 next year, saying the Council of Governments didn’t give justification for the large requested increase.
The tax board also trimmed the Youth Programs budget by $53,000 — leaving the line item with $67,000, or a little more than half of its current allocation.
The tax board also increased the total city budget by about $11,000 — after the Planning and Zoning department indicated it expects to increase its income next year based on an uptick in commercial applications.
The Education Budget
The line item for education — at $63.7 million — is the same as what Lauretti had proposed and about $600,000 more than the schools are getting this year.
The Board of Education had requested a $1.86 million increase.
The budget proposal also allocates money in the city portion of the budget to pay for unemployment costs for the Board of Education.
The city had done the same thing in the current budget, and Holden said about $400,000 remains in the unemployment account.
Holden said Lauretti and Superintendent Freeman Burr are negotiating a deal to take that leftover unemployment money and move it to the school district’s operating budget for next year.
As for the reserve fund, Holden said the tax board recommends that the Board of Aldermen start talking about creating one — although he thinks it might be too late in the process to have it in place for the 2011 – 2012 budget.
