Ansonia Aldermen Adopt $67.1 Million Budget

ANSONIA – Ansonia’s Board of Aldermen voted to adopt a $67.1 million budget for fiscal year 2024 — 2025 that carries a 0.25 mill rate increase on Thursday (May 30).

The new budget will take effect July 1.

Alderman Steven Adamowski abstained from a vote to accept the budget’s expenses. He raised concerns that the Ansonia Board of Education – which, at $37.6 million, makes up 56 percent of the total budget – had not made any details of its funding request available to the public.

“Not to see a budget, or not to have a budget submitted by the board of education, is unprecedented. I don’t know if that’s ever happened in any Connecticut municipality in history,” Adamowski said. ​“In any event, I don’t see how we can approve the budget without having a budget from the board of education.”

Adamowski is a retired school superintendent, having held the job in Hartford and Norwalk.

Ansonia budget director Kurt Miller said that there was little point in seeing the board of education’s budget, since the school board can adjust it later.

“While the board of education could have provided us with a budget, we all know that, their very first meeting in July, they could absolutely flip that budget upside down and make all the changes that they want,” Miller said.

In Derby and Seymour, boards of education develop their budgets in public before sending them for approval to the city (in Derby’s case) or to the voters (in Seymour’s).

Ansonia’s Board of Education used to develop its budget in public, too, but moved its budget process behind closed doors in recent years. Now, details of its budget aren’t made public before it takes effect in July.

Keep reading to hear how the education budget process unfolded this year in Ansonia, or click here for a story about how that process has changed.

Alderman President Joshua Shuart said Adamowski was attempting to ​“sell out” the Aldermen before encouraging him to make a motion to defer action on the budget.

“If you’d like to make a motion to stall everything, that’s fine. Please make that and we’ll move on – or not move on,” Shuart said.

The motion was seconded by Alderman Dan King but received no other votes.

Budget Contains Mill Rate Bump

The 0.25 mill rate increase in the now-approved budget is the first mill rate increase since 2019.

Under the increase, a single-family house on Holbrook Street assessed at $180,000 will pay $45 more per year in taxes.

A house on Gardners Lane assessed at $248,000 will pay $62 more per year.

A house on High Acres Road assessed at $366,000 will pay $91.50 more per year.

Tax bills are calculated by multiplying the assessed value (not the appraised value) by the mill rate and then dividing by 1,000. Click here to look up your address and find the value.

The budget’s $37.6 million allotted for the board of education is a $1.8 million, or five percent increase over last year’s budget. The other $29.5 million budgeted for city expenses is a three percent increase over last year.

City spending increases include a $650,000 increase for public works, almost all of which is due to increased waste collection costs, and a $700,000 (or 9 percent) increase for public safety.

The budget remains virtually unchanged since Mayor David Cassetti presented his proposal on April 25. A few line items were changed after the city received a one-time injection of state funding, but the bottom-line revenues and expenses remained the same.

Board of Education Budget Is A Budget Summary, Not A Detailed Budget

The Valley Indy’s coverage of Ansonia’s budget began with the board of education back in January, with a report that it was considering asking for $37.9 million from the city – or about $300,000 more than what ended up in the budget.

The document containing that number was briefly posted on the board of education’s website before being taken down. Superintendent Joseph DiBacco said at the time that that document was published by mistake.

The board of education hasn’t published anything else regarding their budget since.

In Seymour and Derby, boards of education developed their budget requests throughout January and February and discussed them in public. They then sent their requests to the city, and made breakdowns of those requests available for the public to read.

That’s how Ansonia used to do it. But, since at least last year, the board of education has been developing their budget request outside of public meetings.

Rich Bshara, a city employee in the finance department and president of the board of education, told the Valley Indy earlier this month that the board doesn’t see a need to discuss its budget requests in public.

Although school board members are elected to supervise school spending and policies, Bshara said the school district is just another city department. Department heads regularly meet with finance officials early in the annual budget process.

The Ansonia school budget is now developed in private meetings with board of education officials and city officials. Bshara said the process increases efficiency, and that cooperation with the city has led to better budget outcomes on both sides.

A one-page document shared with The Valley Indy in April showed that most of the board’s request came from increases in employee pay and benefits.

A breakdown of the board of education’s new budget was still not publicly available as of May 30.

The Budget Process In Ansonia Is Fluid

The budget approval brings an end to a process that began in February with the Aldermen voting, for the ninth year in a row, to adopt a budget schedule that violates deadlines set in the city charter.

Alderman Steven Adamowski cast a lone vote in February against adopting the schedule, expressing concern that voting for the schedule would require breaking the Aldermen’s oath of office.

After The Valley Indy wrote a story about the city not following the rules it created, Ansonia Corporation Counsel John Marini found another set of rules – this time from state law – saying the city can change its budget deadlines if it wants.

Nevertheless, Mayor Cassetti established a charter revision commission, which will likely revise the deadlines to reflect the schedule the city follows in practice.

On April 25, Cassetti unveiled his proposed budget – practically the same as the budget that the Aldermen ended up adopting – to the public. This was also the first public document to contain information on the Board of Education’s budget, in the form of a single line item.

A public hearing on May 6 was sparsely attended. The two speakers at the hearing – former Democratic mayoral candidate Thomas Egan and former Alderman William Phipps – both questioned the city’s ongoing practice of budgeting for use of anticipated ​“future revenue.”

Last year, the city budgeted $5 million in ​“use of future revenue.” The new budget contains another $7.4 million for the same thing, making for a total of $12.4 million budgeted for future revenue.

The Ansonia Democratic Town Committee has referred to that money as ​“ghost money,” alleging that it doesn’t actually exist.

Click here for an interview the Valley Indy conducted with budget director Miller about the practice.

The May 6 public hearing was the first of two hearings scheduled for this month. 

Tracking The Meetings

Last week, prior to the second public hearing, the city reshuffled its schedule for budget adoption. The changes were:

• The second public hearing, which was originally scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on May 28, was moved to 6 p.m. on May 29. 

• Two ​“budget workshops” – meetings where the Aldermen discuss the budget proposal with the budget director and have the opportunity to make changes – were originally scheduled for May 28 and May 29. Both meetings were removed from the schedule and did not take place.

• The final budget vote on May 30 was moved from 6:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.

• All meetings – except for the final budget vote – were originally scheduled to be held in-person. They were all moved to take place over Zoom alone.

During the public hearing on May 29, no one spoke. The Valley Indy spoke with two residents – John Feddern and Tommie Howell – who said that they wanted to speak, but they were unable to join the meeting.

Both Feddern and Howell said that they attempted to join about eight minutes after the meeting started, but that they were stuck in a ​“waiting room” for the meeting.

The meeting lasted for about ten minutes before ending. Feddern said it was possible the meeting had already closed by the time he attempted to join.

Alderman President Shuart said that no one was prevented from joining the meeting, and that he had stalled during the meeting in order to give residents more time to speak.

The vote on May 30 was the last step in the budget adoption process.

What’s Next?

Miller said during the meeting that further adjustments may be made to the city’s revenues in light of the city’s sale of its WPCA to Aquarion, which was authorized by the Aldermen on May 28. He said he expects to put most of the money the city receives from that sale into its capital spending plan.

That plan will be presented to the Aldermen at their next monthly meeting on June 11, according to Miller.

The board of education budget is unlikely to be made public before July. At that point, the budget will be included in its financial reports, which are viewable on their monthly meeting agendas.

Also in the works is Ansonia’s 2023 audit. Ansonia is currently one of about 30 towns in the state – out of 169 – that has not submitted its audit for the 2023 — 24 fiscal year. That audit was due last December.