Without any increases in either the School or "Town-side" Budgets, there would be a 3.2% tax increase that results from revenue losses like fees from the Town Clerk, Buildings Department and Zoning Commission. In addition, every time the Fed lowers the lending rate, the Town's interest income takes a hit.
No increases in union salaries, debt service, medical payments or road work or anything else. Everything stays flat and there'd be a 3.2% tax increase. Subtract this from the proposed 4.9% and there'd be a 1.7% tax increase.
What will happen if the voters reject 4.9%? Then very tough decisions will have to be made about where to make cuts, balancing the services that taxpayers demand against their willingness and ability to pay for them. Should Town Hall be closed 1 day a week? Should all capital projects stop? Should employees make a higher contribution to their medical insurance? No.
I think that the money should come out of the BOE Budget, not the "Town-side." I am not in favor of emasculating the Public Works Department or decreasing the level of services anywhere in Town.
Every year we hear the rants of the PTO and BOE who swear that there's no money to be cut from anywhere. Baloney. And then, to make their point, the first cuts they make are those that most affect the kids like pay-to-play. Let's see, there are how many principals? 18? And how many of them make over 100K? All of them, I think.
How many BOE and PTO members are truly qualified to manage or even comment on a budget of this magnitude? Get a group of qualified and sophisticated people together to examine the BOE Budget and demand the supporting evidence - not the hyperbole or rhetoric - the hard evidence. They'll find the scratch, believe me. Open the BOE books to Ray Jankowski, the Town's CFO. He'll find it.
"The economic climate is not good," he said at the Budget presentation last Tuesday. "Do we want to take 2.5 million dollars from undesignated?" Not really, but there doesn't seem to be a choice if we want to be able to deliver services."
"Do I want to use a million dollars from the internal service fund? Not really."
Finally, Ray cautioned the Council and Board of Finance with regard to requests for money that come before the Members. "Every dollar counts," he said. He's so right.
Don't fall for the BOE and PTO hype. Demand accountability.
Friday, February 22, 2008
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23 comments:
Too many tax and spenders -
It is time to cut the some high priced empty suit administrators!
It is time to cut some high priced teachers who have forgotten how to teach!
With the country at war, jobs moving to Asia, cost of medical insurance skyrocketing and oil approaching $100 a barrel, it is time to CUT, CUT, CUT!
One question for the BOE - How do you expect the NM tax payers to pay for these increases?
Why not combine the school finance under the Towns. It appears like Ray would be able to do a much better job. Combine our maintenance departments,do we need to fund two?
At this time we should not be maintaining we should be eliminating.Forget an increase of any kind, we need a decrease in taxes.
If we have to put pay to play back in, oh well, times are tough. How many people are losing there homes? Priorities folks!!!
My daughter has had two teachers who I bet are at the top of the pay scale who should have retired several years ago. No innovation, no enthusiasm, going-through-the-motions type teachers.
The two best teachers she has had were also the two youngest. They kept the kids interested and engaged....and at probably half the salary of the dead wood.
I'm sure there are ways to combine purchases on the town/school side to maximize quantity discounts. We need someone with a finance background to analyze the budget and figure out how to maximize every dollar spent. Volunteers who do this very part time are not the way to go.
Pay-to-play should not be brought back. It is a small part of the budget that provides huge benefits to the kids. They need sports to keep them healthy and busy. If anything we need to increase participation in sports, maybe then so many kids wouldn't be hanging around the green causing trouble.
No question the BOE budget increase must be reduced . . . perhaps more than the mayor has proposed. However, we need to look at the town budget, too.
Without capital or debt the proposed town budget is an increase of 5.4%; capital increase is almost 57% and debt is increasing 3.1%.
If the mayor wants the BOE to hold the line she needs to do the same with the town budget.
Instead she is using 3.5M in non renewable revenue sources to mask this spending increase.
What happens in the 2009/2010 budget when the process begins with a 3.5M deficit and . . . the very probable Medinstill tax abatement will seriously effect the net taxable grand list.
Spending must be reduced if we are to avoid this disaster. This budget cannot be reviewed in a vacuum. We must look at the ramifications of today's decisions on future budgets.
Here's what people have to realize: the vast majority of New Milford budget expenditures involve salaries and benefits for, among others, teachers, administrators, public works employees, police and all the others. the town will never get a grip on its budget until there is a commitment to bring those salaries and benefits under control. The benefits include, by the way, pensions which are largely unfunded. So until town management, including the mayor, the town council the BOE and other governing bodies toe the line on salaries and benefits -- including the "dreaded" possibility of limiting or even reducing salaries and benefits -- the town budget issues will never be addressed, and taxpayers will continue to pay the tax collector.
Jay, thanks for answering my question from another post. This helps me understand this a little better.
Through a total lack of leadership on the BOE for at least a decade, the culture of continual spending without examining areas of long term potential savings, managing resources/assets and combining duplicate functions has emerged as the norm.
Like a person with a spending addiction or any other addiction, an intervention is needed.
It will not be easy as the system has had a long list of enablers. The PTO and their hand chosen candidates will defend the addicted with all of they have. The high drama will not be spared. “Oh suffer the children…..”
Get ready because it’s going to get ridiculous.
Wait a minute...
The BOE books are not open to the town's CFO ??
No, they are not. The BOE is not forthcoming with the information that the CFO requests. Call Ray Jankowski and ask him, 350-6060.
What's more, the format that it uses for its Budget is completely different from the one that the "Town-side" uses. It contains far less information. Despite the fact that it has the ability to generate it in the same detail, it refuses to do so. I think it was two years ago that the Mayor asked the BOE to produce just the contractual side of its Budget in the "Town-side" format. It refused, even though Section 703 of the Charter provides that the Mayor has the right to determine the format.
Here's another "Budget Basic." The BOE doesn't have to follow the Town's Bidding Ordinance that has very specific procedures for bidding. So it can say, "Oh, Joe did a good roofing job for us last year, let's hire him again."
It appears that some bids are put out but not one of the many people I know in the trades in NM has ever told me that the BOE has solicited a bid.
Ray O'Brien addressed this some years ago and got nowhere.
Jay:
You're telling half truths again - why do you persist?
The "Town Side" budget documents are less easy to read, and does not contain a lot of key data or explainations. They don't list the % of increase (or decrease) for each line item, or the $$ increase (or decrease) for each line item. They also are lacking any type of narrative, leaving a citizen wondering what's going on in each department for the coming year.
The BOE does list each line item with the % increase (or decrease), $$ increase (or decrease), and each school - and every other department - has a thorough narrative describing what's in their budget. That way a non-accountant can get a good idea of the changes from year to year.
How did I find this out? You can open the budget documents for the Town or BOE on your computer. Just go to the home pages and download them! Decide for yourself if Jay is telling a "half-truth" or not.
Another myth down the drain, eh JL?
Jay,
So then why hasn't the Town Council ever used the power of the purse strings to reign-in the BoE?
It could be as simple as this:
“BoE, you will agree to do A, B, C, etc. before we’ll vote for any increase to your budget.” If the BoE refuses, they get no increase. Period. It’s fully within the Town Council’s authority to do so and all it will take is a little courage on their part. That’s the ONLY way the Town Council can leverage concessions and/or cooperation from the BoE. See how fast the BoE folds when they realize they won’t get any increase to their budget until they agree to some common-sense changes that are long overdue.
Let’s face it; the arrogant, spendthrift BoE has proven that they will never become accountable on their own accord. The Town Council has enabled this by giving carte blanche over increased funding to the BoE year after year without demanding any concessions or accountability in return.
Jay:
Let's tell the whole story on who prescribes the format for the budget. Section 703 of the charter states . . ."in such form as the Mayor, with the approval of the Board of Finance, may prescribe". This addresses the format for the budget.
There is additional language addressing the revenue projections as may be required by the Town Council or the Mayor.
But then again, this Mayor has very little use for the Board of Finance and has never sought their counsel on budgetary matters.
I just would like to add that the Town's budget does have a narrative included in the budget document. And while there isn't a percentage of increase shown [which is just the result of how the original computer module was set up], it does show previous years' budgeted amounts.
The document is about 400 pages and I think it was probably designed this way because any more info. might overwhelm the page.
Thank you, Little Miss M.
Whoever posted the comment last night at 9:24 p.m. obviously doesn't understand much about the budget books or what's in them.
The state education statutes specify that local Boards of Education have complete control over education budgets. However, local Boards of Education have little or no control over what their budgets actually are. That's up to our Mayor and Town Council to decide (the BoF is practically irrelevant these days). The Mayor and Town Council can completely disregard the BoE's budget request and send a BoE budget that's as high or low as they want to the voters at referendum.
Why not threaten the BoE with no increase (or an actual cut) if the BoE doesn't adopt some of the Mayor's and Town Council's common-sense reforms (e.g. greater accountability, combining departments, purchasing, finance, etc.)? Instead of writing any more futile letters to the BoE, the mayor should be getting a majority of the Town Council on her side to force the BoE's hand.
I'm tired of all the buck passing and hollow rhetoric when it comes to waste and inefficiency in the town and school budgets. If our elected officials "can't do anything about it", then why do we even need them?
The mayor has very little use for the BOF.....
That is not true, the mayor works very closely with the current BOF
Chair and has even before he was the chair. She may not have worked well with George McL
but what woman could. He was to busy calling her names and making false statements like he knows all about the budget when he only knows what his builder buddy tells him.
anon said' The "Town Side" budget documents are less easy to read, and does not contain a lot of key data or explainations. They don't list the % of increase (or decrease) for each line item, or the $$ increase (or decrease) for each line item. They also are lacking any type of narrative, leaving a citizen wondering what's going on in each department for the coming year.
That's because the "Town" side can do the math......we didn't grow up on "new math"
The problem with the format of the BOE budget is that it doesn't show the actual year-to-date expenditures on each line item. Of course, you can cross reference it on their monthly report, but that's a pain.....
Without seeing the line-by-line year-to-date info, it's very difficult to know what the actual percentage increase is.
I asked the BOE to give it to me in the same format that the town side's budget is printed, but they said that it's "too late." Personally, I'm offended that they are doing everything they can to hide as much information as possible, and to make it as difficult as possible for Town Council and the Board of Finance to effectively work on the budget.
The town side is much more transparent....But I'm not going to let the BOE's intentionally difficult format hinder me from doing what's right for the taxpayers.....
Jay and little miss m:
Tell us what page the "narrative" is on in the budget document? I've looked on-line and can't find it.
If this supposed "narrative" is included in the copy only given the the public officials, then why won't they include it on-line? What are they afraid of?????
Don't forget - the BOE includes a detailed narrative for every school, and every key department. Why doesn't the town?
To all you uninformed taxpayers, former council woman Pat Sherry was the architech of the current budget(07/08)which resulted in a tax increase of only 2.4%. My solution to this years budget debacle is to "bring back Pat". Having observed Pat in the last budget cycle, which took less than 20 minutes to conclude. I envision that she could cut 6 million from the proposed budget plan which would result in a tax reduction. Solution "bring back Pat".
Are you looking at the 407 page document on the Town's website? There's a narrative for each line item. There is no information that is hidden, although I would agree the document isn't very easy to read online.
There's a copy at the Library and Town Clerk's Office where it would be much easier to review.
little miss m:
I think we have two different understandings of the word "narrative." I meant a page filled with sentences, explainations, reasoning, etc., in order to give a lay person an idea of how the budget was arrived at. Read the BOE budget to see what I mean, where there is at least a page filled with explainations for each school, and each key department.
The town has none of this. This leaves us with little to go on other than "trust" that the town is headed in the right direction. Are employees being added or subtracted? Are there key needs for a department in the coming year? A real narrative would help.
The BOE's "narrative" is little more than a pathetic attempt at diverting attention from all the "hidden" increases on the line items that they provide no explanation for. The town's side is much more transparent than the BOE's......The format the BOE provides is absolutely useless....
By the way, why are so many of you "anonymous?" If you believe in what you're saying, you shouldn't have to hide your identity....
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