Finance board begins review of $46M budget

EAST HAMPTON >> As the Board of Finance begins assessing the components of the 2017-18 budget, board members will be looking at a general government budget “full of questions.”

Most of those questions revolve around the still-unresolved issue of what and how much revenues the town can expect from the state. Further complicating the issue: it could be months, not weeks, before the town learns the answer to those questions.

For now, however, “We’re just trying to maintain what we have,” Town Manager Michael Maniscalco said. There are additional

questions, including ones involving the level of worker’s compensation increases and “questions that relate to our health insurance costs,” Maniscalco said.

After putting off action on the budget for a week in hopes of generating more information from state officials, the Board of Finance began its budget review in earnest on Monday. It did so without Chairwoman Allison Tokarz, who has resigned her position on the board.

Tokarz has been replaced by Michael Rose, who was appointed to fill the position by the Town Council last week.

The budget Maniscalco presented to the board calls for spending $45.96 million during the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1. The general government share of the budget proposal includes a sharp rise in health insurance costs of between 28 and 30 percent.

“We had some experiences last year,” Maniscalco explained. “And it wasn’t just us; the Board of Education uses the same carrier we do,” the manager explained during a telephone call late Monday morning.

However, the town is working to reduce the cost of health insurance, Maniscalco said.

The manager’s proposed budget also contains additional half-year funding for the police officer hired to keep the department at full strength as Officer Hardie Burgin continues to recover from injuries he sustained when he was struck by a car while on a traffic detail.

The largest share of the overall budget — $31.747 million — comes from the Board of Education.

However, that request includes a $1.6 million contingency allocation in the event the General Assembly agrees with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposal to off-load some of the cost of the teachers’ pension program onto cities and towns.

Superintendent of Schools Paul Smith’s decision to include the pension cost became a subject of discussion during last week’s abortive finance board meeting. Board member Alan Hurst said he believed there was little to no chance of the legislature agreeing to Malloy’s proposal and said the board should not include it in the proposed budget.

Other members said while they understood Hurst’s argument, they were leery of trying to predict what the legislature would — or would not — do.

In an email last week, Smith said “We added a ‘contingency’ line item (to) the budget to protect the schools should the General Assembly approve portions of the governor’s budget proposal.”

The contingency “is a separate line item not associated with any costs, programs, etc., except to be used should the state budget not support education — including what has been called a ‘local contribution’ to the teacher’s retirement system. I had to put forward a budget by March 1 — a budget that cannot be added to by me or by the Board of Education after that day,” Smith said.

“It would be irresponsible to consider presenting a school budget to the town (knowing it cannot be raised after March 1) with a contingency to protect our schools and our children from the damage that could be done to the East Hampton Public Schools should any aspect of the governor’s budget be implemented,” Smith continued.

Smith did offer a glimmer of optimism, however. “As we learn more about how the state will fund education, I am (expecting and hoping) that the contingency line will be reduced or eliminated,” he said.

FILE PHOTO