Sitting at his desk in the Seymour First Selectman’s office earlier this month, Kurt Miller was told an interview with a reporter was hovering at the 1‑hour mark. Would he like to wrap it up?
Not at all.
“I love this stuff. I could talk about this all day,” Miller said.
What do you think the interview was about?
His beloved New York Mets reporting for spring training? The “True Detective” season finale on HBO?
Nope.
Miller was talking about bond ratings, debt service and the town’s fund balance.
Now well into his second term as First Selectman, Miller has been trying to get Seymour to alter its attitude toward budgeting, with a sharper eye toward the future.
It’s easier said than done.
The annual spending plan is, in part, a political process, and towns tend to look at budgets from year to year, often obsessing over the annual budget-to-budget percent increase (“The schools want a 3.5 percent increase? WHAT!?!”).
On March 19, the town’s board of finance approved a tentative spending plan for next year that increases spending by about $1.6 million — or 3 percent, according to a story in the New Haven Register.
Minutes of the meeting are posted below.
In Seymour, voters get the ultimate say in a referendum usually held in May.
In an interview, Miller called that proposal a “bit too high,” and said that, based on his calculations on the budget, a tax rate increase of .5 to .7 mills is needed to cope with rising insurance costs.
The finance board’s budget carries a tax rate increase of 1.15 mills, according to the Register.
(The Seymour Board of Education, by the way, are scheduled to meet Monday, March 24 at 8 p.m. in the central office on Bank Street to discuss the fact the finance board underfunded the school district’s request by $200,000).
Miller, meanwhile, has been pushing the town to look toward future years — the fiscal years 2017 – 2018 and 2020 – 2021, to be exact.
“We used to do our budgets one year at a time. ‘I’m just worried about the mill rate this year and the heck with the year after that,’” Miller said. “We cannot do that anymore. Now all our decisions are getting us ready for those future years.”
Click the play button below to watch a presentation Miller gave to the town’s board of finance earlier this month.
The years 2018 and 2021 are important because a combined $2 million in debt payments will come off the books, Miller said.
The First Selectman has been urging the town to create policies that will put the town in better fiscal shape, giving them more “options” (tax decrease? no tax increase? buy a fire truck? pave cruddy roads?) when the debt comes off.
Example — Miller is trying to get the town to increase its fund balance, (click here for a definition) with the hope that Seymour government will eventually see its bond rating increase, which would allow the town to borrow money with a cheaper interest rate.
Miller said the town had a fund balance of about 9 percent of its total budget in 2007. Bond rating agencies and financial auditors like to see a bond rating of about 10 percent.
However, the fund balance dipped to about 5 percent a few years later, as town government decided to use the money instead of letting it sit.
“Philosophies at that time said, ‘Well, you don’t need such a high fund balance, let’s use some of that to offset taxes, let’s use it to pay some expenses,’” Miller said.
As of March 6, the town’s fund balance was estimated at about 8.5 percent.
“For the last three budgets, we’ve been trying to build that back up. It takes restraint,” Miller said.
Now Miller and Selectmen have created a Ten Year Strategic Plan Committee, a goal of which is to formalize the fiscal policies Seymour is now putting into place. Miller wants sound fiscal policy to become the rule in Seymour, regardless of who is in the First Selectman’s office.
The committee has met three times this year. Click here to read minutes and agendas.
“A lot of this is in my head or scribbled on pieces of papers and in files all over the place. It is now becoming actual written policy,” Miller said.
