
A screenshot from the Ansonia Board of Aldermen meeting on Jan. 12.
ANSONIA – Ansonia Mayor David Cassetti signaled that he intends to develop this year’s budget on the schedule required by city charter.
Cassetti told the Board of Aldermen on Jan. 14 that he intends to have a draft of a budget by early February. The charter requires the mayor to submit a budget proposal to the tax board by the second Monday in February.
If that happens, it would be the first time in a decade that the city has followed the charter when drafting its budget. Last year, Cassetti presented his proposal to the tax board on April 25 – nearly two and a half months after the charter deadline.
Those charter deadlines were written by the Cassetti administration in 2014 and approved by voters on the ballot that year. However, the city has not followed those deadlines since 2015.
The charter is the blueprint setting out the rules for how Ansonia government organizes and operates.
Last year, The Valley Indy reported on the Cassetti administration’s insistence on following a budget schedule that bears little relation to the one in the charter. City officials say that Ansonia relies on money from the state, and that the state doesn’t finalize its numbers until later in the year – typically May or June.
By forming a budget later in the season, officials say, Ansonia is able to present a budget with solid numbers that requires less adjustment later on.
After that article was published, the Board of Aldermen formed a charter revision commission to take a look at the charter deadlines and potentially change them. However, that commission never met.
Last year’s budget was ultimately adopted by the Aldermen on May 30. The charter deadline is April 30.
That budget also had transparency issues. At the time of its adoption, no details of the board of education’s $37.6 million budget were available to the public.
The Valley Indy tried throughout the spring to acquire details about that budget request under the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act. However, education officials, including Superintendent Joseph DiBacco, pointed to a part of that act which allows the government to keep ​“draft” documents private.
In the end, the board of education’s budget – which makes up more than half of the total budget – was not made public until mid-June, five months after schools in Derby and Seymour made their budget requests public.
In his address to the Aldermen on Jan. 12, Cassetti repeated his administration’s defense of its budget process.
“We won’t know early on whether or not we will receive our full and fair funding and whether we will have numbers in a timely fashion,” Cassetti said.
However, he said he still intends to present a budget proposal on-time this year.
If it happens, the move would also make Ansonia’s budget process resemble its neighbors’ more closely. In Derby and Seymour, budgets are typically finalized and adopted by late April or early May.
The budget deadlines in the charter are as follows:
Second Monday in February (Feb. 10, 2025): The mayor shall submit to the board of apportionment and taxation a proposed fiscal budget.
Second Tuesday in March (Mar. 11, 2025): The board of apportionment and taxation shall submit to the board of aldermen a proposed fiscal budget in the form prescribed in section (a) and make a recommendation as to the tax rate to be fixed for the ensuing fiscal year.
Second Tuesday in April (April 8, 2025): The board of aldermen shall hold a public hearing on the proposed budget.
April 30: The board of aldermen shall adopt the budget for the ensuing fiscal year and fix the tax rate to be levied on property in the city in the ensuing year.