ANSONIA – Members of the Board of Apportionment and Taxation could approve a preliminary budget Wednesday (April 8).
The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chambers of city hall (253 Main St).
If the tax board votes to approve a budget, it will then head to the city’s Board of Aldermen for review. That board is next scheduled to meet April 14.
Budget Basics
Under a $68.1 million budget proposal from Mayor Frank Tyszka, the city’s mill rate would increase by 2.27 mills, to 30.82. Tyszka has said repeatedly a tax increase is needed because of the bad financial practices of his predecessor, David Cassetti.
The city-side of the budget is $29,484,066, which is a decrease of $22,051 compared to the current budget.
The proposed school budget is $38,612,089, the same as the current year.
Under the proposed budget, a house on Gardners Lane assessed at $248,000 would pay $562.96 more per year.
The budget proposal right now would have to be approved by voters in a public referendum, because the increase in net taxes to be collected is more than 3 percent.
The Tax Board
The members of the tax board could change those dollar amounts before passing the spending plan to the Aldermen for review.
Tax board chairman Edward Norman said the board will likely alter the budget at the meeting scheduled for Wednesday (April 8).
He said the board could alter the budget line-by-line or propose blanket cuts.
“Do we want to cut 2 percent? Do we want to cut 5 percent, 10 percent, or whatever. You know, what’s our target,” Norman said.
Nunzio Parente, the vice chairman of the board, said he would vote against the proposed $68.1 million budget unless spending is reduced by $7.5 million.
Parente said he got the dollar amount based on removing income projections which had been included in past budgets. Those projections included money from a fuel cell which hasn’t been built, and money which ended up coming from proceeds of the city’s sale of its sewer system.
“Unless you have a plan to bring in a lot more revenue, then someone’s got to hone in and get their arms around the spending,” Parente said.
Members of the tax board have been attending meetings with city department heads throughout the last month. However, those meetings have been less than transparent, since members did not take minutes.
The idea for Wednesday night preliminary budget adoption was hatched at the tax board meeting Monday. That meant the Wednesday meeting notice had to be posted by 6 p.m. Tuesday in order to be legal under state government transparency rules.
The notice was posted more than 24 hours in advance.