Town to vote on 2.41% tax increase Tuesday

GUILFORD — With a budget referendum on Tuesday, Guilford residents will vote on a 3.22 percent increase in spending, bringing the current year’s approximately $97.5 million budget up to around $100.6 million for next year. The plan would require an estimated tax rate increase of 0.75 mills, making next year’s projected rate 32.03, or 2.41 percent over the current rate of 31.28.

“These budgets keep the value of Guilford and what Guilford residents expect,” said Board of Finance Chairman Michael Ayles. Though the board called for a $75,000 to the the Board of Selectmen’s town operating budget and a $125,000 cut to the Board of Education’s school budget, Ayles said, those original proposals “didn’t really come in with any fluff.”

Both the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Education choose precisely where to adjust their respective budgets, Ayles said.

As the proposal now stands, the town operating budget would account for around $30.5 million of total spending, up 3.62 percent from the current fiscal year. At a 1.77 percent increase, education spending represents approximately $60.6 million, and debt service costs would be 12 percent higher at a new total of around $9.5 million.

In an email, Superintendent Paul Freeman wrote about how the $125,000 reduction will change the budget. “We did not cut any program or position. We have increased projected savings in the areas of retirements and medical insurance, and we made minor reductions in other areas as well.”

In an interview conducted prior to the Board of Finance review, Freeman went over some of the main points of the budget.

He noted that while there were no staffing increases — in fact, they have proposed eliminating half a position — the district would need to raise salary spending by just under $890,000, or 2.52 percent, in order to meet contractual obligations.

The Board of Education also opted to expand special education programs, Freeman said, a decision “directly reflective of the students and their needs.” The district is, for example, working to grow a behavioral support program.

Freeman said the Board of Education is not asking for many new additions, calling the budget “modest” compared to past years’ proposals. But, he said, it meets the district’s needs — and the Board of Finance’s cuts don’t change that.

“If the budget passes as presented, we will be able to maintain current programming and class sizes,” Freeman’s email said.

In terms of the town operating budget, First Selectman Matthew T. Hoey III said they were able to eliminate an additional $75,000 in spending without risking a big operational impact. Insurance savings helped, and the town also opted to forgo some capital funding, he said.

In the overall budget, “most of our increases are employee benefits and salaries,” Hoey said, adding that the town must also make up for an anticipated decrease in grant money for firefighters.

The town is adding two new positions as well, Hoey said, one in IT and one in the Parks and Recreation Department.

Hoey called the IT employee, who would provide technical support to the town, “essential.” “There’s been an underinvestment in Information Technology,” Hoey said.

Some $60,000 worth of savings in consulting fees would help offset the cost of adding the position. Because of the lack of IT help, police and fire have been forced to hire consultants and use sworn officers to do technical work, Hoey said.

The new parks employee would help with trash removal around public parks and the green, also providing general maintenance service to town buildings, the selectman said. The town plans to invest in a small-scale garbage truck, he said.

This year, Ayles said, challenges to balancing the budget included an increase in debt service costs and an uncertainty around state budget decisions. The first of these “shouldn’t be a surprise,” Ayles said, as the debt comes from the new high school that was completed several years ago.

The coming fiscal year marks the second-to-last that will require a debt service increase, Ayles noted — after 2020-21, debt service costs should drop.

But state-level decisions are more difficult to predict. After the Board of Finance became aware that Governor Ned Lamont had proposed requiring a municipal contribution to teacher pensions — which for Guilford would amount to $166,000 in the coming fiscal year — and that assistance from the state Board of Education could decrease by as much as $587,000, Ayles said, they realized they should account for those impacts.

While they had initially hoped to keep the tax increase below 2 percent, Ayles said, incorporating some of the net losses from the gubernatorial proposals brings the increase closer to 2.5 percent. In the end, the board opted to account for around twothirds of the possible impact in their proposal.

Though it remains uncertain whether the proposals will pass, Ayles said he thought it was smart to make a “conservative estimate,” especially with potential changes in store further down the line.

“We’re going to get less and less and less state funding,” Ayles said.

If the state gives a strong indication that the proposals will not go through, Ayles said, and if that indication comes within ten days of the budget passing, the board can opt to readjust the tax rate.

If they are unable to re-adjust and the proposals get nixed, Guilford would end up with a little extra tax revenue, Ayles said. That’s not a bad thing, the chairman noted, as it helps the town maintain a healthy fund balance.