The proposal now goes to the city’s Board of Apportionment and Taxation, which will hold a series of workshops in the coming weeks. That board will then deliver a recommendation to the city’s Aldermen, who have final say on the budget.
At A Glance
The city’s current budget totals $120,692,371.
Lauretti’s proposal represents an increase of $1,663,375, or about 1.4 percent, in year-over-year spending.
But the mayor said the city’s mill rate of would remain at 22.31 — for a fourth straight year — if the budget he proposed Friday is passed by the Board of Aldermen.
That means person with a house assessed at $150,000 will pay $3,346.50 in property taxes next year.
Schools
Lauretti’s proposal calls for $70,470,000 in school spending in 2016 – 2017.
Aldermen allocated $69,345,000 to the school district for 2015 – 2016.
Last month, the school board requested $71,117,231 for 2016 – 2017.
Article continues after an 86-page “budget book” published on the school district’s website detailing the request.
2016 – 17 Shelton School Budget Request
In remarks to the tax board and Aldermen Tuesday, Lauretti lamented the fact that enrollment in the city’s schools has actually decreased since he took office, yet the school district’s budgets rise year after year — “ballooning” to roughly $70 million currently.
Click play on the video above to see the mayor’s speech.
“This is not a trend that is sustainable, for both city and state,” Lauretti said. “Government must change the way it serves people and delivers services.”
But Lauretti’s budget proposal is notable in that there’s only a difference of roughly $650,000 between what the school board requested and what he proposed.
Last year, that difference was nearly $3 million.
The year before that, Shelton’s budget season was essentially a months-long argument over whether the city could afford full-day kindergarten.
Schools Superintendent Freeman Burr cited the annual budget battles as his primary reason for resigning from his post last May.
Lauretti said after his speech Tuesday that the school board’s budget proposal for 2016 – 2017 is better than in years past.
“It does show a little progress,” he said.
The city’s new schools Superintendent, Christopher Clouet, said after Lauretti’s speech that he’s confident the schools will end up with a spending plan that “will allow us to do the work we need to do.”
“We’re making some progress, we’re getting a lot of work done,” Clouet said. “The city and the school district are in full cooperation mode.”
“The mayor and I have been in regular contact,” Clouet said. “He’s been very forthcoming about his point of view, and I have shared mine. And we have come to, I think, a sense of what’s fair and what is sustainable.”
The superintendent said he looked forward to presenting the school budget in detail to the tax board at a workshop meeting scheduled for April 6.
State ‘Unfriendly’ To Businesses
Lauretti noted Tuesday’s meeting marked his 25th budget proposal since taking office in 1991.
Of the 24 city budgets passed during his tenure, the mayor said 17 have come with either no change to the tax rate or a decrease.
The reason — though the city’s population has only grown about 4,000 in that time, roughly 25,000 people are working in Shelton on any given weekday as more and more businesses have moved in.
Shelton’s grand list of taxable real estate is now nearly $5 billion, up about 0.75 percent from last year.
That has allowed the city to keep taxes low while growing responsibly and expanding services — new schools, open space purchases, walking trails, a “rebirth” of downtown, to name a few.
“Businesses have certainly benefited from one year to the next as Shelton is constant and predictable,” Lauretti said.
The mayor said the same could not be said of the state, noting that 44 Fortune 500 companies have upped stakes from Connecticut since 1991.
“We as a state lag poorly behind the rest of the country and continue to be business-unfriendly,” Lauretti said. “Taxes, taxes, and more taxes, along with onerous regulations year in, year out, have made Connecticut less competitive than the rest of the country.”
Criticism of state government is a recurring motif in Lauretti’s public remarks.
But the mayor’s contrasting of the city’s and state’s economic fortunes was the dominant theme of his address Monday.
Lauretti, who ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination to challenge Gov. Dannel Malloy in 2014, is considering another run in 2018.
Did the 20 or so people at City Hall Tuesday witness the launch of that bid?
The mayor said only he’s still considering a run — while slamming state government in Hartford.
“They think they’re doing the people’s work up there. There’s a reason why so many people are leaving (the state),” Lauretti said. “We control our spending. We pay our bills. We improve our infrastructure.”
What Now?
The Board of Apportionment and Taxation will now hold a series of workshop meetings to discuss Lauretti’s proposal with department heads.
The schedule:
- April 4, 7 p.m.: Administrative Office, Employee Resources, Legislative, Board of Ethics, Public Employees Appeals Board, Elections, Probate Court, Legal-Corporation Counsel, Drug & Alcohol Commission, Public Health
- April 4, 8 p.m.: Library, Recreation, City/Town Clerk, Senior Center, Municipal Parking Authority, Youth Service Bureau/CAP
- April 6, 7 p.m.: Board of Education
- April 11, 7 pm.: Public Safety & Emergency Services, EMS Commission, Fire Marshal, Fire Department, Animal Control, Police Department
- April 18, 7 p.m.: Inland/Wetlands, Economic Development Commission, Economic Development, Planning & Zoning, Conservation Commission, Zoning Appeals Board, Municipal Property Maintenance, Community Development, Building Department
- April 18, 8 p.m.: Public Works Director, Engineering, Tree Warden, Highways & Bridges, Road Repairs, Recycling Program, Sanitation
- April 20, 7 p.m.: Assessor, Tax Collector, Purchasing, Utilities, Management Information Services
- April 20, 8 p.m.: Accounting & Control, Elected/Appointed Officials, Public Risk Management, Debt Service, Revenue
- April 20, 9 p.m.: Miscellaneous, Vehicle Funds, Capital Spending, Outside Agency Contributions, Contingency Accounts.
From there, the tax board has until May 1 to submit a budget plan to the city’s Aldermen, per the city charter.
The Aldermen then have until May 31 to adopt a spending plan for 2015 – 2016.
