Budget Negotiations Continue Post-Hearing
NEWINGTON - Town Council Republicans and members of the Board of Education continue to seek a budget compromise as tonight's setting of the Mill Rate and a 0 percent school spending increase looms.

       Board Chair Nancy Petronio said Monday night that a 1.7 percent increase is what they would need for â€"very minimum disruption”.

       â€"Anything lower than that and that’s pretty devastating,” Petronio said over the phone.

       Majority Leader Beth Delbuono would not comment on the requested 1.7 percent.

       Council democrats-joined by former Deputy Mayor Maureen Klett-tried again to pass a motion to increase the Board of Education budget by 2.8 percent in a proposal that failed 5-4 following a Thursday night public hearing filled largely by those opposing the Majority’s plan to flat fund the schools.

       The hearing filled the Newington High School auditorium to about capacity, even with Mayor Roy Zartarian’s preannounced intentions to limit public comment to taxpayers and voters-a Charter-prompted move that raised eyebrows among students and teachers that may become the targets of district layoffs.

       A few residents sounded off on property tax increases, urging the Council to stick to its position on the Board budget in order to curb the impact, but many more voices spoke out against the 0 percent, pointing to the possibility of layoffs that they say will lead to the school system’s decline.

       â€"This is something the Board cannot sustain,” said Tessa Woods, one of a few Newington High School seniors who were able to speak during the hearing. â€"Teachers will go. Class sizes will increase.”

       The night before, the Board deliberated until almost midnight, going through a slew of potential cuts that included 11 non-tenured teachers. Class sizes in some grades averaged in the mid-twenties, with District Chief of Staff Stephen Foresi projecting that some could go as high as 30 students.

       Anna Reynolds Elementary-recently named a Blue Ribbon school-is already growing beyond its capacity, Collins has said. Jennifer Rodriguez, whose son attends third grade there, says that fourth grade class sizes may hit 26 kids on average next year.

       â€"The cut that will be made affects my school, my family-our families,” Rodriguez said.

       But the budget decisions are bigger than the school system, other residents have said. The Council must consider what it can afford, as well as how the bleak state budget outlook will affect Newington and other municipalities, said town resident John Bachand, who wrote in and had his letter read into the record.

       â€"If not now, when will we see the writing on the wall and the state of the economy?” Bachand wrote.

       Resident Hal Whitney, who attended the hearing, had similar thoughts. From the podium, he said that his daughter is a teacher and that he supports education, but that belt tightening in these times are simply a necessity.

       â€"In a perfect world, with no fiscal concerns, I’d give you 10 percent,” Whitney said. â€"But the best we want for you, may not be the best we can give you.”

       The hearing finished around 11 p.m., after which the Council took a brief recess and reconvened to deliberate on any proposed adjustments. Minority Leader Carol Anest led off, raising the motion for the 2.8 percent increase-a bid that was rejected 5-4 at a budget discussion held the prior week.

       She-along with Democrats Diana Serra and Jim Marocchini-attended the Board meeting the previous night, and watched them go through the tentative cuts.

       â€"I was sick to my stomach,” Anest said. â€"This [the 0 percent] is not necessary. I know we can’t sustain these increases, but we can’t sustain 0 percent. Our property values can’t.”

       But with 55 percent of property values going up in the last revaluation, more than half of town residents will be seeing tax increases regardless of how the budget goes, and many can’t afford to, said Republican Majority Leader Beth Delbuono.

       â€"This is not anything anyone of us take lightly,” Delbuono said. â€"It’s not easy to say no-it’s absolutely agonizing.”

       With a vote to set the budget approaching, the two sides have been searching for middle ground. There has been talk of increasing the budget beyond the zero percent in exchange for a portion of the Board’s health benefit surplus, but the Board has moved away from that since the early discussions because it does not want to use an unstable source of revenue to fund salaries, Petronio said Monday night.

       Former Democratic Deputy Mayor Clark Castelle urged both sides to consider such an agreement, pointing to a similar deal made between then-Mayor Jeff Wright and Board Chair and former Mayor Stephen Woods in 2010, when he also sat on the body.

       â€"Failure to do so will disrupt careers, lives, and prompt an exodus of talented administrators, teachers, and students, doing irreversible damage,” Castelle said during the hearing.

       In 2010, the Board transferred all but $300,000 in heath benefit surplus funds back to the Town General Fund. With a credit of over $1 million that year, the town came away with more than $700,000 while the Board got the 2.9 percent it needed to cover its expenses.

       â€"It worked for us, [but] we weren’t negotiating from a place of zero,” Woods said over the phone Friday.

       For it to be beneficial for the Board to trade a portion of its health benefit surplus-projected to come in at over $800,000 next year-they would have to ask for at least 2 percent from the town, Woods said.

      

      

      
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