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ANNUAL TOWN BUDGET MEETING
MAY 2, 2011
Town Council Chairman Mark W. Zacchio called the Annual Town Budget Meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. in the Avon Senior Center, Community Room.
The first order of business was to call for nominations for a Moderator.
On a motion made and duly seconded, it was unanimously voted to elect Diane S. Hornaday as Moderator of the Annual Budget Meeting.
The Moderator, Diane S. Hornaday, welcomed all that came tonight. She reported we are here tonight at our Annual Town Meeting and there will be discussion on the proposed Budget. She requested the Town Clerk to come forward and read the call of the Town Meeting. The Clerk read the following notice:
LEGAL NOTICE
TOWN OF AVON
ANNUAL BUDGET MEETING
The Annual Budget meeting of the electors and citizens qualified to vote in Town
Meetings of the Town of Avon, Connecticut will be held at the Avon Senior
Center, 635 West Avon Road, in the Town of Avon, Connecticut on Monday,
May 2, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. for the following purposes:
To receive and consider a resolution for the adoption of the 2011/2012
Annual Budget in the amount of $74,584,980. as recommended by the Board of
Finance, for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 2011.
Pursuant to Section 9.4.1 of the Avon Town Charter, the Annual Budget Meeting
will be adjourned to a referendum vote on the aforesaid recommended Budget to
be held on Wednesday, May 11, 2011, between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 8:00
p.m. Electors and persons who are not electors but who are qualified to vote at town meetings will vote at the Avon Senior Center, 635 West Avon Road, Avon, Connecticut.
Absentee ballots are available at the Town Clerk’s Office in the Town Hall.
The foresaid question will be placed on paper ballots under the following heading:
“Shall the Annual Town Budget in the amount of $74,584,980. as
recommended by the Board of Finance, for the fiscal year
commencing July 1, 2011 be approved?”
Voters approving the proposed question will vote “Yes” and those opposing the proposed question will vote “No”.
Dated at Avon, Connecticut, this 14th day of April, 2011.
Thomas F. Harrison, Chairman
Board of Finance
The Moderator called upon Thomas Harrison, Chairman of the Board of Finance to present the Resolution.
Mr. Harrison requested with the indulgence of the Moderator he would like to take a minute to explain what the purpose of this meeting is tonight. We are at a half way point between the old budget system and the current budget system. The difference is the referendum. All through and including 1998 the process was the Board of Finance would hold a Public Hearing; confer with the Board of Education and the Town Council and make such adjustments to the budget requests as deemed to be desirable, and then come up with the recommended budget. The Charter said and still says the recommended budget, that this year was developed on April 6th, be submitted to the Town Meeting. What use to happen was – you would have the Town Meeting on the first
Monday, and the resolution be approved and be seconded and discussion and then there would be vote of the Town Meeting; by a show of hand or whatever, so everything up to this point is basically the same. However, since the beginning of 1999 we don’t vote at this meeting we will make a motion that the recommended budget that came out of the April 6th meeting will be the question put to the voters. What happens the three Boards will make brief presentations as to what the numbers are. After that, any questions or comments, from the audience - you can campaign for or against and do that tonight; it is the public’s opportunity. At the end of this meeting we will adjourn to a referendum. Possibly the next time we take a look at the Charter we might do away with this Annual Meeting. As long it is here it is part of a holdover from the previous Charter.
Mr. Harrison moved the following Resolution:
“Shall the Annual Town Budget in the amount of $74,584,980 as recommended by the Board of Finance, for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 2011 be approved?”
The motion was duly seconded.
The Moderator requested Mr. Harrison, Chairman of the Board of Finance to make his presentation. He will be followed by Mr. Zacchio, Chairman of the Town Council and followed by Mrs. Roell, Chairman of the Board of Education. The three power points are made part of these minutes.
Mr. Harrison reported the role of the Board of Finance under the Town Charter is to provide some balance between what is reasonable for services for both the school and the town side and a reasonable level of taxes to support those services. In the current fiscal year you can see that the level of services that were funded through you the taxpayers was $72,873.138 and what we are proposing and what we are recommending is that level of services be increased to $74,584,980. It is an increase, it is not a zero increase budget and it is not a spending freeze. What is on the table will increase the service level from $72,873,138 to $74,584,980. The factors that we looked at - the economic conditions, specifically we are all very concerned about the level of increase taxes the Avon residents will
be facing outside of Avon. Governor Malloy and the legislature have agreed upon a very large increase in a series of tax increases in the income tax and the sales taxes along with other things. We are concerned with the economy in general and the unemployment rate in Avon has been for two years in a row above 6%. Besides those things we looked at other likely sources of revenues and we know that we are going to get an increase in revenues from the State this year compared to what we are getting in this current fiscal year. In addition we have declines in other revenue sources such as Building Permits etc. that we raise locally. Comments we heard at meetings, e-mails and discussions with residents around town, past history of what Avon residents are willing to support and in conclusion what we feel is in the best interest for the Town of Avon taken as a whole. Putting all those factors into consideration we voted to adopt the budget requests that will
be before you next week at the Referendum. These are the recommendations we are proposing to increase the Town’s portion of the Operating Budget by $467,000. that is 2.45 %, we are proposing to increase Board of Education’s Operating Budget by $1,100,000 or a 2.56%. Both of those increases we are recommending in operating budgets are higher than the annual change in the cost to the consumer price index that has been around 1.9%. These increases are above the CPI. The Sewer Budget we are recommending a small increase and as you know that it is not funded through the property tax that you will be voting on next week. We propose to increase the Capitol Improvement $250,000 and a decrease in the Debt Service Budget by 4% that is because we paid off some old debt. All of this put together; the budget that you will be voting next week increases spending by $1,700,000 that is a 2.35% increase in spending and that will
require a mill rate increase of 2.45%. and will get the mill rate up to 25.04 mills. As you can see there are increases in spending and an increase in the mill rate. Other than property taxes approximately $8,400,000, will come from fees that will be raised for us about 11.4%, the rest of it 88.6% is a steady increase each year that comes from the property tax - it is edging up each year. If this budget is approved at 88.6% the revenues we need to support the spending levels will have to come from the property taxes. Approximately 79% will come from single family homes and condos. Once again we have the Town Assessor’s website – you can go on that, put your required information such as the property address, owner’s name etc. You can see specifically what the change will be in your taxes if the budget as proposed and as recommended is passed. That concludes my presentation and we will entertain questions at the
end.
Mark Zacchio reported that he will give the presentation upon the adjustments that have been made and our recommended increase is $467,420 on the Operating Budget that was a reduction of $62,000. the adjustments that the Board of Finance recommended to us. We did that reduction out a number of accounts across each budget – line item so we ended up with a 2.45% increase. That was 2.77% before the adjustments were made. There is no change in the Sewer Account - sewers are primarily driven by assessments of those who use the system. It is part of the complete budget; all those items are funded by sewer users and do not come out of the grand levy. The Debt Service is what it is we do not have the ability to change – this year because we retired some old debt we experienced
a decrease in the debt service payment to principal and interest to our long term debt. The decrease in the Debt Service is down $201,992 or -4.3%. Our biggest part of adjustments came in our Capitol Improvement Budget; we have a $249,461. increase over last year primarily for the road resurfacing program. The majority of our budget reduction is made up of Capital Budget and a small portion from the Operating Budget. From the time our Department Heads put together their budgets and it is rolled up to the Town Manager and then to the Town Council we have reduced our budget around $700,000 from the original operating plan. We like to look at our Department Heads as having the best and the brightest ideas and some of them get funded and some of those get funded in years forward, but those reductions stand at $700,000. The bigger items are really on the Capital Improvement side reductions of $6,697,599 compared to what our Department Heads
recommended originally. Again a lot of those projects are there for us to recognize our needs and some of those needs are immediate and we try to put them in the budget this year and some of those needs might be for future years but we use it as a plan and exercise. The majority of that $6,697,500 or at least a third of it comes into the road improvement program. We engaged in a pavement program a number of years ago to be funded, a portion of that is based on an assessment of the conditions. We currently have 70% of our roads with rating of eight or above, ten is the best. We have a number of roads below that; those are the ones we will do overlaying or crack sealing or paving. As the years go on if we don’t fund 100% of what is in the road paving program it rolls and accumulates over time so it gives us an idea of if we were to engage in future structure for our roads what kind of costs that might be. We are very careful; however,
to make sure that we are doing the right overlaying and the right crack sealing, to make sure we are not rebuilding roads that are where big ticket items come in if you have structure issues. Most of the budget increases on the town side are for personnel services such as – required pension contribution - $68,967. Retiree Health - $188,303; Wages and Salaries - $140,595 for a total $397,865. Our Capital Improvement program the only thing that has changed from the last presentation, we have taken $150,000 out for a fire engine that the Fire Department had requested. If you remember that number was $350,000 our intention was to fund that Fire Department apparatus over a period of two years. What we have done is reduce by $150,000 and will fund the balance over three years. We understand that will not impose any kind of safety issue for us. Certainly with the fire that happened last Thursday we realize how important it is to have a very
well equipped volunteer fire department to handle a blaze of that size, as a matter of fact one of our retired Board of Finance member house was the one who experienced that and his house was pretty much a total loss. However, he and his family got out safely – he has stated that he never thought that all that time on the Board of Finance who was funding the fire department how important it would be and he could not be more pleased with not only how our fire department reacted as professional but how well equipped they were, and how well they were organized. Once again we have included $1,416,857 for Capital Improvement Projects and that is a healthy increase over last year and something we feel comfortable with. There were a lot of questions at our last meeting around the tax relief program. I will take a moment to recognize the program that we do have in place. Eligible property owners who are 65 years or older or who are disabled are qualified if
their income is at $45,000 or less. The benefits we currently pay today range from anywhere for $375 to $2,050 depending upon the household on an average basis of $630 in tax credit. The total cost of that on the 2010 grant list was $153,075. and that liability transferred from those taking advantage of the program to the rest of the taxpayers in town for an approximate $25.00 per household rate. If you are interested in applying for the program you can apply to Harry der Asadourian Tax Assessor directly. The application can be picked up or dropped off at the Assessor’s Office. The deadline is May 16, 2011 of this year to qualify for a tax credit. Another indication of where our tax credits fall is the same tax program that surrounding communities use. The State recommended income limits is $39,500 a lot of towns in the Farmington Valley have indexed that higher and Avon falls higher than Canton and a little higher than West
Hartford in terms of income almost the same as Farmington and a little below Simsbury and Granby. That $153,075. figure includes 241 homes currently taking advantage of that program in Avon. We rank fairly well in terms of folks taking advantage of it and the Council does take a look at it each year. In fact we just indexed it from $42,000 $45,000. When we do that we actually look across our community and index it up to see how many household we can capture up to $49,000 and there were not to many. We look at that on an annual basis on how many household we can capture. In summary our requests in a aggregate is 1.98%. That reflects the reductions to the Operating Budget down to 2.45%, Capital Improvement Budget at 21.37%. We will take questions at the end. Thank You.
Mr. Zacchio introduced Peggy Roell, Chairman of the Board of Education Mrs. Roell reported tomorrow is Gary Mala’s two month anniversary as our Superintendent and it is amazing to me what he has accomplished during those two months. Among his accomplishments having to reduce our proposed budget by almost one million dollars. The Board appreciates the hard work by Gary and his Administrative team which resulted in having a little affect on our students. Last week the Board unanimously approved the Administration proposed adjustments. At this time I would like to introduce Gary to briefly review the reductions and talk a little bit about what is in the proposed budget you will be voting on next week and I hope you join with me in voting yes.
Mr. Mala, Superintendent of Schools reported the theme of this Board of Education budget continues to be the same as it has been since the proposed budget was submitted many months ago. Relative to educating children of Avon and respectful of the goals that are associated with the organization.. More importantly it is responsive to the needs of the children present each and every day. The rationale for this budget again remains the same as it has been we must meet our morale and ethical obligation to our children. Our role as a public school district is to advocate the needs of all our children. Our goal is to continue to operate during these unprecedented fiscal times with having a minimum impact on our community. As you know there are many mandates that affect some of the work we do
each and every day and there is a need to redirect and continue our focus on teaching and learning. This budget does allow us to do. The last thing we have to do is to put some of our expenses in perspective of the 2.5% - 2.24% is associated with contractual obligations in the form of compensation which really translate into our district being labor intensive. Most school districts in fact are labor intensive. Summary of our requests is $1,100,000 or 2.56%. Nondiscretionary costs total of the budget is 92.56%. The goal and reduction scenario are multiple. My goal with a team of people was to focus on our commitment to our children. To maintain a commitment to advancing work necessary to teaching and learning. Also, hope to minimize the staff reduction impacting current employees. We do not want to contribute to a large unemployment figure not only locally but at the State level. We have made a commitment to maintain fees
at current levels. Another goal is to identify efficiencies to offset operating expenses it is the fundamental way as the Superintendent and also implement reductions that would not have an adverse impact on our children or the purposes we perform each and every day. The actual challenge grew significantly from the time we were together last. The required reduction after examination of some lines I realized that there had been some areas that were not funded properly almost to the amount $65,000. Last and certainly not least was one of those unanticipated tuition that was presented to me on the 12th of April. The actual cost of that tuition is $114,000. So the total required reductions that happened after the Budget Workshop are offsets to operating expenses – last Tuesday in the morning I was informed that our insurance renewal rates came in at 2.4% as compared to 7.85% that was budgeted; there was an automatic $254,000
reduction made at that time to the insurance. Our non-personnel line item reductions were $266,413. and personnel line item reduction $254,896. Actual reductions reflect $752,309. that is simply subtracting the insurance renewal figure. He focused for a moment on Energy Education Contract and was excited to speak to this because we will realize $135,000. in savings associated with energy consumption without any capital investment. This is a program implemented in our schools sponsored by a company that has proven results over a 25 years period of time in schools across the country. He was excited about telling this because if we choose to continue our affiliation implementation of what they recommend using examination of 1200 data points associated with energy consumption or conservation it will actually realize a total of $4,400,000. in energy conservation. Another reduction was an insurance adjustment in the amount of $294,497
and pre-kindergarten tuition. He reported there were specific reductions in non-personnel items totaling $266,413. Personnel reductions for a total $254,896 and in some instances they were part-time positions and there was a salary adjustments of $28,424. which occurs when people leave at a certain salary and are replaced at a certain salary and we bring in people at a lower rate of pay. He reported on a summary of major expenses the 2.56% increase associated with salary represent 2.24%of that total and the rest are made up of various items. He made some summary remarks and reported this budget scenario maintains a commitment to establish virtual high school at Avon High School, increases the number of counselors at Avon High School and also increase incrementally health services and security at the Avon High School and it restores a previously reduced music position at the Avon Middle School and provides increment support for district curriculum work. It
eliminates any dependence on any federal stimulus funds and does increase support for staff implementation of SRBI model consistently across the district which we are mandated to provide. We are not increasing fees from their current levels. As I said the last time the district has made a commitment to run the operational functions as a business, the teaching aspect can not run as a business but our operational functions can. We reaffirmed our commitment to engage others in open conversations about how to do the work of public schools better and in a more efficient ways. Some of you I have had an opportunity to meet with personally to review thoughts that you had after reviewing this proposed budget as well as past proposed budgets and I respect the information that was brought forward. We will diligently work to maintain open, positive relations with local and state-level elected officials and work to resolve differences in amicable ways. He reported the budget
provides for what is needed to open the doors of the Avon Public Schools next year and begins to address in small, incremental ways what has been identified as immediate needs. Reductions implemented in past budget have reduced the capacity to make further reductions. I am excited to also report that there have been conversations between Brandon and myself to look at opportunities where we can share services between the school district and the town. The reduction scenario may not be ideal I believe it is responsible and equitable giving all the factors that had to be considered. I appreciate your attention as my other two collegiates presented and I will be more than happy to address your questions.
The Moderator thanked all three for your informative presentations. She reported we will take comments and/or questions for information. I would like to establish some brief ground rules. The first being not to applause and not make audible sounds if you like what someone has said. It takes time and sometimes it seems rude to me so I ask you not to do that. The people who are qualified to speak tonight are those qualified to vote on May11th and those people are registered to vote in the town of Avon and people that own taxable property valued at $1000. or more. People you have heard will respond to any questions you have. We will take your comments at this time.
The Moderator recognized Ms. Stahl to speak..
Flo Stahl 2 Sunset Trail reported on behalf of the Avon Taxpayers Association this budget represents a fair compromise and should be supported by the entire community. Thank you
The Moderator asked for any further comments – there being none The Moderator moved to adjourn this meeting to May 11th. The Referendum will be held in this building from 6:00a.m. to 8:00 p.m. It was duly seconded.
The meeting adjourned at 7:40 p.m.
Attest:
Ann L.Dearstyne
Town Clerk
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