The Board of Aldermen passed its $58.9 million budget proposal to the city’s tax board this week with a challenge: Try to whittle the 2.2 percent increase down to zero.
The preliminary 2011 – 2012 budget proposal represents a $1.25 million, or 2.2 percent increase in spending over the current year.
If approved as is, it would mean a tax rate increase of less than a mill — from 25.75 to 26.67 mills.
The proposal — which could change when the tax board takes a swing at it — would mean a taxpayer with a home assessed at $200,000 would see a $184 increase on next year’s tax bill.
“I think that with an even closer look, the whole thing may go down,” said Eugene Sharkey, chairman of the Board of Aldermen’s finance committee, which presented the spending plan to the Board of Aldermen this week.
Sharkey and the finance committee, in a written letter, recommended the city consider furlough days, increased medical co-pays and shorter work weeks as other ways to save money next year.
Fine Points
The proposal keeps most department budgets level, and moves some money around between departments.
For example, the city government line item is increasing, while streets and buildings line items are decreasing — a by-product of streamlining all utility accounts in one place, Sharkey said.
The senior center line item, on the other hand, has been increased from $70,000 to $134,641 to account for a custodian position that was cut from the current year’s budget.
The proposal gives the Board of Education the same amount of money it received in the current fiscal year — $26.07 million.
The school board has requested a $911,000, or 3.5 percent, increase.
Sharkey said the Board of Aldermen decided to leave the school budget the same in their budget draft, and leave it up to the tax board to add money.
The proposal also budgets less for the library — a result of “staff reductions” there.
Recommendations
With the preliminary budget proposal, the Board of Aldermen passed along a list of recommendations for the tax board and city hall.
They include:
- Bonding large capital improvement items, instead of working them into the budget.
- An unspecified number of city-wide furlough days. Each day saves about $28,000, the finance committee said.
- Reduce the work week for all non-essential service departments to 32 hours.
- Increase health insurance co-payments for city employees.
- Negotiate a zero percent increase for union employees.
Last Year
The proposal represents a change from last year’s preliminary budget plan, which had asked for an 8.4 percent increase.
Sharkey said last year, the proposal included the full request from the Board of Education, and other “high ticket” items.
The Board of Aldermen had proposed the 8.4 percent increase expecting cuts from the Board of Apportionment and Taxation. But residents came out protesting the proposal and created a group called “Axe the Tax” to rally at meetings.
The 2010-11 budget was eventually approved in May, with a 1.9 percent spending increase and a half a mill tax rate increase.
The document below contains recommendations from the Ansonia Aldermen Finance Committee along with “notes” on the budget.
