Ansonia Aldermen Adopt Budget With Tax Increase

ANSONIA – The Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday to adopt a $68.86 million combined city and school budget Tuesday (June 9) with an almost 1 mill increase.

The new mill rate is 29.46 mills. That’s a .91 mill increase – or 3.19 percent – over the current mill rate of 28.55 mills.

Here is what the new mill rate means for some taxpayers:

Under the new mill rate, a single-family house on Holbrook Street assessed at $180,000 will pay $163.80 more per year in taxes.

A house on Gardners Lane assessed at $248,000 will pay $225.68 more per year.

A house on High Acres Road assessed at $366,000 will pay $333.06 more per year.

Tyszka and members of his administration have said they inherited large budget problems from former Mayor David Cassetti’s administration, including a $37 million fuel cell project which hasn’t been built and the city’s use of funds from the $41 million sale of its WPCA.

Ansonia Budget Transparency Still Lacking 

Copies of the budget were not made available to the public prior to the June 9 meeting.

This has become common in Ansonia during budget season.

Under former Mayor Cassetti, the administration wouldn’t give initial budget proposals to the public in advance of the mayor’s official unveiling, saying it was still a “draft” document. 

Draft documents can be kept private, under specific circumstances, under the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

However, the Cassetti’s administration’s move ignored established case law in Connecticut that says local governments, prior to declaring a document a ‘draft,’ are supposed to weigh whether keeping the document secret outweighed the public interest in disclosure.

The “draft” budget would always become magically public to coincide with the mayor’s scheduled presentation.

The new administration Tuesday also did not provide copies of the budget before the meeting, even though it was a public document. 

Javier Varas, the mayor’s chief of staff, cited aspects of the local charter having to do with the authority of the Ansonia Board of Aldermen.

A local charter cannot supersede state law. The Freedom of Information Act is state law.

Government records in Connecticut are presumed to be public unless there is a specific law or section of law that says otherwise. The government is supposed to cite the exemption when denying a request.

In addition, whether the legislative body approved or disapproved the budget has nothing to do with whether the document is public.

No More Referendums

The budget previously went to referendum June 1 with a 1.8 mill increase. 

The $38.6 million Ansonia Public Schools budget (a zero percent increase) was approved by the public, but voters rejected the $30.5 million city side of the budget.

That rejection brought members of the Board of Aldermen to Tuesday’s meeting. The goal was to reduce spending so a second referendum could be avoided. In Ansonia, a budget with a net increase in taxes of more than 3 percent must go to voters for approval. The net increase in taxes to be collected in the newly approved budget is 1.12 percent.

The new city-side budget is $30,250,204, a 2.52 percent increase over the current $29.5 million budget.

Reduction List

The new budget trimmed $283,862 in city-side spending compared to the budget which was rejected at a June 1 referendum.

Michael Iodice, the city’s chief fiscal officer, said the spending reductions come from staff reductions in the city finance office, a delayed promotion in the police department, and reduction in public works services. The list of reductions he presented was:

• About $69,000 from the police department by delaying a lieutenant promotion by three months, and by lowering a payment on a 5-year vendor contract
• About $47,000 from the Ansonia Rescue Medical Services (ARMS) budget, mostly by cutting an annual donation
• About $38,500 from public works by reducing overtime hours, parks and streets maintenance and supplies, and tree cutting
• About $31,500 from the mayor’s office by reducing the chief of staff’s salary and by cutting the mayor’s spending budget by two-thirds
• About $15,000 from the city’s contingency budget and
• About $13,250 by reducing office supplies budgets for city departments

Iodice said the budget will combine three positions in the city finance department into one (financial consultant, budget manager, and audit risk and compliance specialist). However, he did not specify a dollar amount that that would save.

Ansonia Budget Director Kurt Miller’s contract, which expires July 1, is not being renewed. Miller is the former Seymour First Selectman who was brought in by Cassetti to help draft the annual budget.

Below is a video of Iodice detailing the spending reductions.