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BOARD OF FINANCE – PUBLIC HEARING
MINUTES
MAY 27, 2003
The Public Hearing was called to order at 7:00 p.m. in the Community Room of the Avon Senior Center, 635 West Avon Road. Chairman Tom Harrison, Members Tom Gugliotti, Bill Hooper, Steve McGuff, Michael Monts, Jim Speich and Mark Zacchio were in attendance.
Mr. Harrison reported to those attending that the Town Charter requires that in the event a budget is rejected at Referendum, it is then up to Board of Finance, within a very tight time period to consult with the Town Council land Board of Education to discuss any modifications that may be required. We did that last Monday night, a week ago today. The second step then is the Public Hearing which is occurring tonight. The third step is based on what we’ve heard at the consultation and at the Public Hearing we will then recommend a modified budget to the Town Council and that will happen tomorrow night at the final workshop. The Referendum has already been scheduled for Wednesday, June 4th. It will be here, 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., the same hours as the last time. What we’re doing tonight, the handouts that you received show a kind of a tentative modified budget. The reason for that is at the workshop that we had last week, there was no unanimity among the Board of Finance members in
terms of what kind of reductions and how much and from what source would be appropriate in view of the voting results of the first Referendum. A couple of our members recommended a tax increase of about 3.9%, which is down from the 5.13% increase that was defeated; a couple of members were at 3.9%, at least one member was at 4.5, the rest were scattered between the low to middle 4. The best we could come up with for tonight is a tentative number that would call for a tax increase of 4.3% and the figures in the Town’s handout are based on that. That is not likely to be the budget that will be recommended. The Town Attorney has advised us that we could not present a range at this meeting – we had to present a number so that 4.3% number is a number strictly for discussion purposes and we’ll digest what we hear tonight and then go forward from there. I’m not a betting man, but if I were I would guess that it would come out lower
than the 4.3%. I don’t know where or how …. Don’t just focus in on the numbers on the chart, they are just there to provide some illustrations. The procedure tonight to is that we’ll have Dick Hines make a little presentation on the Town’s portion of the budget including the Town’s Operating Budget and the Capital Improvement Program. Pam Friedman will present on behalf of the Board of Education their comments on these modifications that are in the handout. The Board of Finance will have a very brief presentation. The slide presentations will be nowhere as long as they were at the April Town Hearing. One of the feedbacks was that the presentations were too long so we’ll shorten that considerably. After the three presentations we’ll then open the meeting for questions or comments. There will be no limit on how long we’ll stay here tonight; we’ll stay as long
as it takes. To keep some sense of fairness, please limit your presentations to between 2 and 3 minutes at least initially so that we’ll give everybody a chance to be heard if they would like to. Again, when you do speak, please identify yourself by name and address.
Before we get into Dick Hines’ presentation, obviously we’ve had a very significant turnout at the Referendum – the highest we’ve ever had and I would like to commend both the Avon Citizens for Education and the Avon Taxpayers’ Association for the hard work they did in increasing the awareness of the Budget Referendum here in Town. This is the highest total we’ve ever had. I’m going to have a slide on that in a couple of minutes but I commend both those organizations for conducting a very fair and very clean campaign. They succeeded in increasing the awareness in the turnout and that’s great. I’d like to see the turnout get up to the level that we had during the Presidential elections, 97% or 98%. We’ll get there, but we’re not
there yet and this is the best we’ve ever had. One final note I think we have to give a special debt of gratitude to one of our members of the Board of Finance, Tom Gugliotti. Tonight is his 31st Anniversary – he’s here with all of us instead of back with his wife where he should be. With that, I’ll ask Dick Hines to come up.
Mr. Hines, Chairman of the Town Council. It’s kind of hard to know where to start tonight because it seems like we’ve been going through this budget for a very long time. I remember the first night at the Public Hearing the Board of Finance had and we all had a pretty complete presentation; I think it was over 20 slides and I have no intention of doing that tonight. If anyone would like to see that information that was originally in the budget, it’s available and we can provide it to you. After that we had a Town Meeting and we made some cuts that the Board of Finance asked us to make – we went through that. Now to continue on that process with some history, the first budget is put together by all the Department heads and reviewed with
the Town Manager, who gave us an overview of the tough economic climate and we had to cut the budgets that we submitted. When we were through he made $745,000 worth of cuts in the Town Operating Budget. Even though the Department Heads submitted what they thought they needed, he still made major cuts. He also made major cuts in the Capital Improvement Program, normally we’re a little over a million dollars and he made major changes there. Normally when we go to Public Hearing the Council makes cuts in response to comments from the residents and the Town Council made 1.2 million dollars worth of cuts, an additional $850,000 in the Capital Improvement Program and they cut out $387,000 from the Town Operating Budget. When you cut items in the Capital Budget, you’re delaying those items. They are all needed and somewhere down the road we’ll have to get them. You can do a lot in the Operating Budget but in the Capital program
they’ll reappear next year. We went to the Board of Finance Public Hearing and they made major changes and asked us to cut another $100,000. We took that out of the operating budget – they gave us the opportunity to cut either the operating budget or the capital budget and we decided at that time to take it out of the operating budget. After the Referendum was defeated, they came back and asked us to take another $139,000 out and then gave us the opportunity to decide where to make the cuts. We cut almost $50,000 from the Capital Improvement Program and $50,00 out of Operating. At this point we’ve taken a little over five million dollars out of the proposed budget, out of a budget that’s running about 22 million dollars. Let me tell you where the cuts were made for this last $139,000 – in the Capital Outlay area we eliminated one police patrol vehicle, this is the first year I can remember that we’re not replacing
any of the police vehicles. You always like to replace a couple of them to keep them up to standards so you have minimum down time. We think they’re in pretty good shape, maybe the cars can last a little longer the way they’re being built and we’re taking that chance this year. The Town Manager went back and cut every item he could in office equipment and technology areas even though all the employees would like to have them. There’s another $31,000. We wanted to add a police officer, we have not added one since 1986 and we constantly hear that we have more students, but we have more people, too. We have more businesses, but we have not added an officer in that time. We wanted to do it this year, but we had to cut it out. In the Capital Improvement Program we have cut out the renovations to the bathrooms at the Middle School and Roaring Brook. It’s been a number of years and maybe they can be
handled out of the school budget by doing partial work. We also took some out of road services, that’s on top of the $115,000 reduction that the State cut from out program this year. That’s the $139,000.
To summarize where we are now, the Town budget is now proposed at 4.63%. Originally the Board of Finance asked us to come in with a budget under 6%, we did. We’ve continued to make cuts as they requested after the Public Hearing and we’re now down to 4.63%. The Sewer Budget is something that’s covered by revenue so it’s not a critical item. Debt Service, that’s all the items you’ve approved over the years. There’s about 5% for the Town in Sewers and the Police Department, the other 95% is all the school projects we’ve approved over the years. The residents have been very open and willing to support these. Those items are in there now and they cannot be reduced. The Capital Improvement Program increase is 15.14%. Almost ¾ of that is the last year of multi-year programs already committed, so we can’t cut them out. Really, we have already taken out almost 4 million dollars in Capital Improvements this year. They are going to show up again next year – they are only being
delayed. If you look at our long range plans which our departments do and the Board of Education does, in 2005/2006 the proposed Capital program totals 17 million dollars, 6.5 million in 05 and 10.5 million in 06. When we delay these projects, it’s going to get worse. If we keep cutting the capital items this year, we’re just compounding the problem for next year. Obviously we’re not going to be able to take care of 17 million in the next two years, but that’s the kind of programs that are needed that we’re going to have to do. Over the years the Town has been able to pay for these kinds of Capital Improvements on a cash basis; sometimes we go out and bond as we do when they get too high but this just adds to the cost. We want to continue to do Capital items on a cash basis. At this point we’re at a total with the Town, Sewers, Debt Service and Capital Improvement Program, a little under 6% which is where
the Board of Finance asked us to start in the first place. At this point, we’ve got everything below the 6%. I’d like to do one more comparison for you and show you that if we just talk about the proposed budget in comparison to the current Town budget, it’s 4.63%. One of our biggest problems this year in that budget increase is taking care of the funds necessary for the pension funds. They are an obligation to all of our Town employees to provide a pension and with the economic downturn, as you know, we’re not making very big money today on investments, so we have to add an appreciable amount of money. If we didn’t have to put that in, our Town Operating Budget would actually be a 2.5% increase. That’s already with most labor contracts of 3% with steps that make it well over 3% and we’ve gotten it down to 2.5%. If we didn’t have to have any Pension Fund contributions by the Town,
we’d be down to 2.3%. The reason I’m putting this up is to show how the Council has brought this Operating Budget down. For example, if you look at the Operating Budget for the Board of Education, the predominant employees there are covered by the State Pension Fund. If you look at this on an apple to apple basis, we’d be down to 2.3% for the Board of Education, too. They may have more than that because they have clerical and other maintenance workers in there. This gives you an idea where we have brought the budget down to at this point. You might ask can we go further – sure we can. You can always cut further. I think at this point we’re cutting into programs and you’ll have to reduce people who perform those programs. Is it possible? Yes. I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the Town at this point. I hope we can come up with a budget that will be
acceptable to the residents. Last year we had a referendum that was defeated and the Board of Finance responded with a budget that the Town approved. I’m hoping they can do the same this year. Thank you.
Mr. Harrison: As I said, you’ll all get questions for Dick at the end of the presentations. Now for the Board of Education presentation, I present Pam Friedman.
Ms. Friedman: What I’d like to do is bring you up to date on what our numbers that we were asked to provide for today represent and how we arrived at them. I really followed the same track that Mr. Hines followed; we want to keep you informed on how the process works and where we are in that process. Way back in December the administrators and directors came to Dr. Kisiel, the Superintendent, with their suggestions, what they felt their needs were for the buildings and the programs that we needed to move forward. At that point, that budget would have represented 34.3 million dollars. The Superintendent reviewed that budget and after taking $878,000 in cuts from that number, came to the Board of Education in January with 33.4 million dollars. The Board of Education budget
committee reviewed those numbers over a period of five to six weeks, cut an additional $155,000 and came with 33.2 million dollars. This is the number that was a 9.8% increase and that was the number that we explained to you at the April budget hearing. The Board of Finance then reviewed those numbers and asked us to take $803,000 out of the budget, which left a 7.1% increase, which was the number that went to Referendum and was defeated. Now the numbers that it was suggested for us to present this evening was a 6.4% increase or an additional $208,000 that was removed from the budget. The budget was $32,250,424 at that point. From the onset to this point, the reduction vs. the initial request was over two million dollars. The proposed budget increase at 6.4% is a little over 1.9 million dollars. As you can see, that represents 76% for current salaries and the current personnel increases and health insurance. 20% of that number is
represented by an increase in transportation contract, operations, maintenance of buildings and grounds, which is really just increased utility costs, property insurance for the building and …… programs which is an increase in coach’s salaries, food services and a small number for health services which is an additional number for increased immunizations. 4% left of that number is for computer software, license renewals that are necessary and two class room teachers for the enrollment of 120 new students that are coming in. That will not be entirely sufficient but it’s 2 classroom teachers. Those are the numbers and that represents the 1.9 million dollars or 6.4% increase that we’re discussing. As you can see, the Board of Education has not voted on these reductions, but I will tell you that there is very little leeway and these positions will most likely be reduced. 11 full time positions- 2 foreign language teachers, a
music teacher in the elementary level, 1 elementary classroom teacher, science teacher at the High School, Guidance Counselor at the High School, part time ESL teacher, social worker, part time health/PE teacher, speech clinician, full time maintenance worker, custodian, computer technician and a part time clerk/typist which represents about 11 full time positions. What will also not happen with a 6.4% increase is no library books, delay new math for the 2nd year in a row, delay the Grade 5 foreign language program and we will also be delaying additional teaching supplies, funds for computer instructional software, funds for multi-media materials, new equipment, new computer equipment and building maintenance projects. That’s what will not happen with a 6.4% increase. Any further reductions will result in program reductions and increase of class size. As I stated before, you’ve all heard me, we’re going through some difficult
economic times. Similarly, as stated before, there are certain expenses that I believe should not be deferred; specifically those associated with the education of our children. The bottom line is there is no rainy day fund. Any unexpected expenses cannot be provided for in this budget. The public schools are facing an increasing expectation for programs and services. I cannot honestly tell you that these reductions will not have an adverse affect on our system. But I do promise you this, we will professionally mange our budget with the money that is allocated to us.
Mr. Harrison: We have just three slides for you tonight from the Board of Finance. The first slide shows if the 4.3% tentative budget under discussion tonight were in fact submitted to the voters and were approved by the voters, these are the increases in the various categories. Basically it states what Dick and Pam said and puts it in one single slide. You’ve got that in your handout so I’m not going to spend too much time on that. The question that everybody seems to be more interested in is the tax increases. The chart shows the percentage of tax increase over the last 10 years. You’ve heard us explain it before but just in case there are new faces here tonight, the big increase in 00/01 came after revaluation when the Grand List actually decreased so
just to have stayed even, before we looked at any increase, there had to be a tax increase. If you take that off what looks like a 9.3% increase, in net terms it was about 5% increase that year although it distorts it because of the revaluation. Two years ago you approved a 5.7% increase, last year at the second referendum you approved about 5.4%. If the one under discussion tonight get put before the voters and if it’s approved, that’s a 4.3% increase. We are continuing a downward trend. Everybody needs to be aware that next year we will be facing revaluation again. We don’t know how that will turn out, it’s more than likely that probably the Grand List will go up some, particularly on the residential side. I don’t want anyone to get the idea that’s found money that we can put through all sorts of increases. We’re still at the Board of Finance level that next year we’ll have an
apples to apples comparison of percentage increases from year to year so don’t let the fact that revaluation will allow us to make all kinds of reductions we’ve had to face the past two years. This next slide is very interesting and I’d like to spend a few minutes on it. We switched to the Referendum approach about 4 or 5 years ago following a revision to the Town Charter. As you know, we used to do it with a Town Meeting where people would stand up or do a voice vote or occasionally we would have a call where people would walk by and actually count the yes and no votes. There was sentiment to change that; but a lot of people were unhappy with getting away from that old long standing New England Tradition, but it was approved by the voters. If you look at it, it seems to me it’s taken people a few years to get into the swing of this. The first year we had one of these, as you can see in 1999, we only had a 10% turnout. It went up the following year to 13%. In 2001, for
reasons that I don’t understand, the tax increase that year was about 5.4%, but it dropped off to a 5% turnout of voters. Last year at the first referendum it jumped up to 18% and at the second referendum it went up to 25% and this year, the first referendum, as you can see it went up to 34%. As I said in my opening remarks I really appreciate the efforts of the Citizens for Education and the Avon Taxpayer’s Association to increase the awareness. You can see that from year to year, if you look at the “yes” votes from the second referendum last year to the first referendum this year, they went up not all that much, about 75 votes so even with the huge jump in the numbers of voters who turned out, only about 75 of those were “yes” votes. The “no” votes, however, went up quite a lot as you can see, over 900 additional “no” votes. With the turnout this year, you can see we had a huge jump of
almost a thousand additional voters of which about 920 were “no” votes. I think this could be interpreted in different ways but my interpretation is the Referendum is here to stay; I don’t think there’s any way even if people wanted to that we could go back to the old Town Meeting so we all have to get used to that. All three boards, the Council, Board of Education and Board of Finance, when we’re doing the budget planning next year, have to be guided by the fact that we are now fully into the practice of doing this by referendum, the voters are prepared to come out and vote, they’re prepared to vote “no” if they think we’re too high. We don’t always see the “no” votes at the Public Hearings but they certainly come out at the polls and that’s their prerogative. I think the referendum is here to stay; I think the “no” vote cannot be ignored and certainly the “yes” vote is considerable but there was a 232 vote difference this year with a huge turnout. What our objective is as we
go through this preparation for the second referendum is to try to come up with a number that will get some of those “nos” to vote “yes” and that we’ll keep the “yeses” to say “yes”. We don’t know what that number is – we’ve heard a lot of discussion, received a lot of e-mails, phone calls and conversations from people around town but that’s the trick we have to come up with to get a number to keep the “yes” votes and in the “yes” column and to convert some of those “no” votes to “yes”. The way we interpret that vote is there has to be a reduction in spending. I think that’s pretty clear from the fact that this year, unlike the first referendum last year, this year there was a very active campaign, everybody was well aware. Last year there were some complaints that people did not know about the vote; they were busy that day; the
Town didn’t publicize it. This year, that cannot be said – there was a very active effort by the PTO’s, they were very efficient in getting the word back home to the parents that the vote was coming up. All of that tells us something that there is a significant “no” vote there and a significant vote that believes that spending needs to be reduced even further and we’re going to have to listen to that vote and next year as the Boards go through budget preparations, they need to keep that vote in mind as well. Thank you. We’ll now take public comments, questions, whatever.
Paul Kramer, 45 Pine Hill Road: One very quick perspective that might actually help us here this evening; for those of you who attended the workshop about a week ago, there were two members of the Board of Finance that were suggesting that the first number of any property tax increase you might have should be in the 3’s rather than 4’s. To put things in perspective, last year at our first referendum we had a suggested, or we were voting on an increase of 7.53%. It failed. The Board of Finance reduced that number by 28% to 5.41% and it passed with a 28% downward adjustment. No one described the past number as a draconian cut, by the way. This year we went in at 5.13% for the first referendum, a 28% similar to last year reduction in that number would bring us down to
3.7%, fairly close to the two members at the low end of the workshop. As a rough guidance, this reduction of something less than 30% is, in my view at least, set a precedent that may be acceptable.
Saul Bacewicz, 12 Lakeview Blvd. I’m a sophomore at Avon High School. I’m just wondering, how can the budget be balanced yet the superintendent of schools is giving himself a 10% pay raise for the next three years which means one year he’ll get 10% more, the next year he’ll get 10% more of that and the next year he’ll get 10% more than that, so how can the budget if while that is happening non-tenured teachers and staff are experiencing a cut on their medical benefits and also reduced in pay.
Ms. Friedman: The increase this year will be 5%. I will tell you his salary is comparable to our Town Manager’s salary and to other superintendent’s salaries in our area, in fact it’s less. He’s well worth his weight in gold and I think every member on the Board of Education and every parent of the public schools will probably support a higher increase although we felt that with a tight budget, that’s was all we could do.
Richard Groothuis, 58 Hitchcock Lane: I’ve been in Town over 10 years. On the Board of Education budget, every year all I hear are cuts when we have discussions about where the budget is but actually those cuts are wish list items that are not actually a cut of the budget. What I never see is what happens in business which is a zero based budget. It’s hard for me to believe that the only thing you talk about is increase over base. It would be interesting to see what is in that base; I cannot believe that year after year things that are in the Board of Education budget are necessary when things become outmoded over the years. The other quick comment I have is in the reduction I note that 60% of the reductions are in the Board of Ed and 40% are for the Town budget.
I think over time, it is very important that the Town budget does not get out of line with what the necessities are in the Town and reading the newspaper for the past few weeks I notice crimes that are reported in town and I certainly am disturbed that we are not increasing our police force to take care of the needs of the town. It will not be a town that people will want to live in if we don’t keep our services up.
Ms. Friedman: Really the only thing I would say in response to that and I think we’ve made it clear over several opportunities we’ve had to speak in, is if you’re talking business and schools we can only tell you that our business is booming and our population increase is 120 – 150. Over the past 10 years it’s been 1,000 people. If you want to talk business, we have to keep the dollars in proportion to these increases.
Resident: I’m in business and we increase production every day and yet our prices don’t go up. Our prices go down. I would certainly love to have a 5% increase; I haven’t had an increase in two years because of the economy. That’s just a fact of life and I live with it. The response from the person in charge of the Board of Education – it doesn’t seem to be conducive to listening to the people here. You seem very bothered by our comments. It’s very interesting and it’s just my observation. I moved here three years ago, it’s a great city, but I’ve never seen taxes so high in my life as I have here in Connecticut and in Avon. We need to look at how we control these increases and eliminate them because we
can’t keep increases that are bigger than the cost of living increases that we ourselves are not able to keep up with. It doesn’t make sense. I’d like to find out, as this gentlemen said, how we can live without an increase for a couple of years without continually expecting an increase every year. If somebody would address that, I’d appreciate it.
Ms. Friedman: I hope not to make a habit of it this evening, but I would like to respond to the extent that when he said I was bothered by the comments, I won’t lie, I am and I will tell you why, it’s not because we won’t be responsible and we won’t do what the Board suggested, we’ll do the best job we can with it. I’ll tell you that I’ve been on the Board of Education for 16 years and I really think this town was built on, we built something to be proud of and I think all of us are proud of it. Whether we’re happy with the budget increase or not, we have something we’re very proud of and it bothers me to think that we might be chipping away at it little by little. Yes, that’s why I’m bothered. I hope doesn’t
happen and I hope we can count on your support as we always have in the past.
Mr. Hines: I’d like to respond about the general concerns of increased cost of operating the town budget. If you look at our major cost increases, it’s pretty much labor. That’s an area where we’re somewhat in a very tight box. We don’t have complete control over the labor situation; we’re liable for binding arbitration, we’re considered a very wealthy town and when the arbitrators look at this whole situation, we don’t come out with much support from them. I think this is something that needs attention, I think you ought to talk to your State legislators about it, I think there are many towns having these concerns and we’ve got to do something about it, too. There’s no reason why under these economic situations we couldn’t go in say for a couple of years, with no increase. Most of industry is doing that but we cannot do that. We end up in binding arbitration and probably spending a lot of money in legal fees to defend ourselves.
Pat Hennig, 32 Avonridge: First of all I’d like to thank the Town Council, the Board of Ed and the Board of Finance. The reason I’m here tonight is, I’ve be a supporter of Avon Soccer for 27 years with my husband who is still running it. This is only the second time in 27 years we’ve had to deal with this. Numerous, a significant number of phone calls have come from parents that unless we can give scholarships, their children won’t be able to participate because they just don’t have the finances for this, my husband has lost his job, his hours are cut down. I would just like to hope that as we’re looking at reductions that reductions are not made in just one area, they are going to be across the board, not just targeting one area. We’re
all here by choice, not by anybody forcing us.
Tom Shillington, 33 Ariel Way I really know nothing about the budget, I’ll be very honest about that. All that I’ve seen here tonight is everyone seems to forget they are spending my money. I am unemployed, I have a part time job and if we approve the budget I will take this teacher’s position for $46,000 per year any day.
Alan Dodd, 21 Ashford Drive, I don’t profess to be on top of this, either so I’ll warn you about that ahead of time. The comment seems to be in keeping with the number of things I’ve heard here, I praise the highs of Superintendent and the number of services they’d like to afford the residents in Avon. I think in the current economic climate, we all have to live with it, I think it’s kind of weird to ask us to support those services. Nobody likes to cut to the bone, but we all in our own personal economic situation have to do the same so we have to look every single item. The question I have is what is, I’ve heard about 6% increase and have to kick into the pension fund? Has anybody looked into “hedging” to kind of offset that in
the downturn of economic times? Should this referendum on June 4th not pass, what’s the process?
Mr. Harrison: I can answer your second question and maybe Dick Hines can answer the first on the pension portion.
Mr. Hines: I wish I had a good answer for him. I don’t have a good answer! We try to look at the pension fund on a long term basis realizing there will be ups and downs, to come up with an actuarial assumption as to what’s reasonable to the long term. We probably are going through one of those downs now and it’s longer than we thought and it’s hurt us more than it has in the past and we’ve had to add some new funds into it. We have not seen any reason at this point to make a major change in our philosophy on the plan. Most recently the Town Council asked for all the information on the pension plan and today the committee has all the information to review. They may come up with some recommendations on changes. At this point I don’t
think there’s any magical solutions out there. We have an obligation which has been set for over 30 years and we still have faith that the economy will return. I guess the greatest concern I have is by reading comments this past week in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal that we’re probably in a slow economy for several years. We may have a problem in that area but we still have the obligation. I don’t know of any magic solution.
Mr. Harrison: On the process, if this referendum is defeated, under the Town Charter, we’re allowed to have one additional referendum; the most we can have is three. You may read that sometimes towns go on 7, 8, 9 times – we’re not allowed to do that. We can have one more referendum, the run off of which would follow the same procedure as this – we would meet to consult with Board of Education and Town Council, we would have another Public Hearing. We would send a modified budget to the third and final referendum. If that’s defeated, what happens next then is State law kicks in. State law provides that for a short period of time (30 days or 60 days) the Board of Finance can temporarily approve expenditures and so forth but the long term to solution
under State law is it goes to the Town Council and the Town Council under Dick Hines’ chairmanship can set a budget and a tax rate without need for a referendum. They can do that at one of these meetings. Obviously it will be done at a public meeting but the voters will no longer have a direct impact or a direct opportunity to vote on the budget and the tax rate. You could do that indirectly by voting for the members of the Council when their terms come up, they are two year terms, but you would have no direct impact. That would be the process. Keep in mind it costs us about $6,000 each time we run one of these referenda because of personnel, etc. There’s a potential that if we have to go to a third referendum, there may be some issues with a delay in getting out the tax bills. The revenue we normally get at the end of July might be delayed and that would have some impact, as well.
Linda Merlin, High Gate Rd. – So tonight we are here again to decide how we can cut this budget. But how can we do that? Well, you all on the Board know where I stand because I’ve spoken at the last few meetings. There’s a lot of local sentiment against this budget. Clearly in these economic times asking people to pay more taxes is difficult. That’s why the budget didn’t pass the first time around. So, why am I willing to pay more taxes. First of all, I’m not sure I want to pay those taxes. The truth is it’s not all about me and my pocketbook, I’m willing to pay and that’s the difference. For me, it’s a question of priorities and my priority is to support this town. I think this town would be a
better place if it received the budget as proposed. I care about and support the police and fire department. One of my favorite places in this town is the library.
I support the Senior Center and the Community Center and yes, I support the schools. I know ………….. for those of you who are on the Board of Finance, …………. fair budget. That tells me that was a budget that was good for this town. But now, I hope it won’t be lowered too much because you are under pressure. What’s good for the Town is good for all of us. There’s a lot of talk these days about patriotism, well to me, the focus has been in all the wrong places. To me, there’s nothing more patriotic than supporting one’s community by paying taxes. …………. Eventually in a town like this that continues to grow………..will start to do some real damage and may come back
to haunt us. I hope the Board of Finance will give all the facts to everybody at the Town Meeting and then take into account all segments of the Town and not just one, and arrive at another fair figure. Then I hope it will get behind it’s decision wholeheartedly and ask the Town loud and clear for its support. Let’s do what’s best for all of us, let’s do what’s best for Avon.
Jay Lassiter, Toll Gate Lane – Since I guess part of this meeting was to get a field for how the community felt, but not everybody feels the way most of the comments have gone tonight. I also value education a lot and first, my thought is that the referendum is when you ask if people want to pay more taxes they say no. What I would like to know and try to figure out so that I can make a fair decision regarding the Board of Education, and that I honestly don’t know, is with the phenomenal amount of growth in Avon my understanding is that every time a house goes up and a family of four moves in, the taxes generated from that house don’t cover the cost to the town for the police department, fire department, or the education system. My thought is it’s not time to be
adding to the education budget, but my guess is, and I’d certainly like to hear the figures is that an increase is needed just because of the large number of new students coming in. Talking to other parents in the school system, people don’t necessarily vote and after they hear what was done are horrified. That’s too late. This is very helpful to know this has already been lost, but it might be helpful to know what would be next if this doesn’t pass.
Keith Sherman – Toll Gate Lane - I’m here both as a resident and also as president of the Board of Trustees of the Avon Free Public Library. Library supporters tend to be a very quite bunch in part because many of our supporters are under the speaking age, but also because the whole etiquette of the library is to have a low voice – shhhhhhhh – so I do want to just mention that this is not just about school services, it’s not just about the leaves, but it is about the library as well. At the moment every resource and service in the library is at capacity if not beyond and any further cuts in this budget will result directly in a cut of services. It’s not like we can delay adding some capital improvement or such. Most of our budget goes to delivering
programs, services, staff and keeping the doors open. I’m here to encourage everybody who has had a part in the budget, and everybody who has a part in passing the budget to prevent any further cuts to the library so we can keep the doors open, not have to cut weekend and evening hours and not cut back from all of the constituents who range from our youngest story time kids to our students to our young adults and our seniors, thank you very much.
Pam Friedman: - A delayed response and I apologize for the delay. It’s difficult to answer the question but I would tell you that the cost to educate one student is eight thousand dollars so if that’s just one person who moves in when most houses have two students, taxes don’t go very far to cover that. What will we cut next? As you saw on that chart, 2 teachers and the enrollment increase would go next as far as I can tell.
Sam Levine, 98 Cotswold Way – I myself am a taxpayer in the community. I myself have bills to pay, I myself have two children in the school system, I myself am not happy about paying increased taxes. I have to think about my kids college education, I have to think about bailing out Social Security, I am not happy about paying higher taxes. But, the reality of the situation that this community doesn’t seem to understand, what it doesn’t seem to appreciate fully is that every time a new family moves into this community, with the amount of new houses being built, the amount of taxes they generate does not pay for themselves. The cost of keeping and maintaining people in this town has to be absorbed by the rest of the town and until the community gets it unbridled growth under
control, we are going to be revisiting this year after year after year. I don’t like paying higher taxes but I have chosen to and I voted yes and I will hopefully continue to vote yes in order to support this community. The other thing is that somebody said that we are stuck with this referendum forever and there will not be a change. With all due respect, I think it’s incredible, I think what this referendum has done is divided this town in a way that could not have been expected. You have 20% of the community voting no; you’ve got 50% more voting nothing – either they’re unaware, and there are plenty of people in town who are unaware of the vote, and the rest don’t care so you’ve got 22% of the people deciding for the rest of this community what we’re going to do with our dollars. I for one am appalled by that. You all need to step up to the plate and come up with a creative solution and maybe the
Town Council who has put so much time and effort into creating the budget and the Board of Finance who has invested so much and has put out as responsible a budget as they can with this unbridled growth, if you can’t come up with a better alternative to 20% of the town into deciding everything, we’re going to be here every year and it’s going to be such an ugly community and I don’t know if I can partake in it any more. It’s exhausting! I also have to say the way you split up the cut to put 50% on the Board of Ed is totally excessive. I thought so last time and I think it still is. The burden should not fall on our students. There are people in this community who’ll always say – why can’t the gym teacher teach history? The article in the paper today couldn’t even do the math to determine there is a responsible budget out there by the Board of Ed and you all need to respect that –
people don’t buy houses in this community because of its AAA bond rating and because you’ve got a rainy day fund, they buy it because of the schools and there are your property values right there. Thank you all.
Mr. Harrison: On the question that Sam raised about the percentage of people who sided with the budget, this year we had about 35% of the registered voters. We used to have the Town Meetings where we didn’t get anywhere near double digit percentages of the people coming out. It’s because we switched to the referenda that the percentage of people who participate in the budget process has increased. We had Town Meetings who had fewer people than are sitting in this room tonight so the referendum has increased participation.
Bob Paine, Tamara Circle – We’ve been here 26 years. I’d like to say in deference to the Chairman woman of the Board of Ed, the priorities in favor of education in Avon have not changed. The current budget that we have, not the one we’re voting on, the one the school is operating under is spending $11,200 per pupil. You have to include the total cost – you don’t include just the operating expense, you include the debt service as well as the operating expenses. You would have to own a house with a market value of $1,200,000 to pay for two children attending Avon schools. If you do not, you’re not paying the Town’s budget share of the expense, someone else is paying that for you and someone else is paying for the balance of your school
expenses. It’s a heck of a bargain in Avon. You’d have to go to a private school and pay $25,000 to $30,000 per year per child too get the education you get here. We’ve never shirked our responsibility or our dedication to education in this town – not in the 26 years that I’ve been here and I don’t like the implication that’s being laid down now. We’re doing the best we can, we’ve got a tough situation here – the Grand List only went up 3% and we’re asking for another 4 or 5% to be spent – that’s 8%. We don’t have that big a Grand List. If you want to have a moratorium against construction and development of the Town, then let’s get together and do something about it. Talk to the Zoning Board. Right now we’re faced with a crisis because of the economy, when times were good, we voted anything you ever wanted in this town. We always
have. We have never shirked building new schools, adding new teachers, adding programs that never existed before and we kept up with the times. So don’t give us this baloney about how everybody’s going to suffer. We’re not building a bureaucratic empire – we’re teaching children in a school system that’s paid for by the public.
Claire Henderson, Keystone Circle: I’ve lived here for 25 years and I just would like to respond to and back some of the comments made. I think any tax increase must reflect the economic reality of the times. Avon’s tax increase considerably less than the current economic indicators. Please, give us a budget and a tax rate that all can afford and support in the next referendum. Do not subject us to yet a third referendum by not listening to and responding to the letters from constituents. Thank you.
Joanne Deschler, Stonefield Road: I’ve lived in the community for 19 years. We have two children who have gone through the school system, one is now in college and one is still in high school. I hear people talking about cutting teachers and the sacred cow of my god there are so many students per teacher and not go over that limit. In reality, I would like the Board of Education to think about maybe cutting some of the beaureacratic people out of the system. Is it really necessary to have an assistant principal in every one of these systems? What exactly do they do? Ms. Levine talked about a gym teacher teaching history – at times I’d like to see a history teacher teach history. You have some of those problems. You want to know what I think
about this budget? I would like to see a zero percent increase. That might be a very radical idea.
Joanne Campbell, 39 Meadow Ridge: I’m also a resident of Avon and President of the Avon Volunteer Fire Department. I also have a child in the school system. What I’ve heard is that nobody wants to pay more taxes and what I heard from this hearing, it’s not a question of want, people can’t pay. I think we have to listen to them. I don’t want to stand here and say the Board of Education should do this or that, but I am here to urge the Board of Finance to keep the 60/40 split at least. The Board of Ed’s budget is bigger than the Town but the Town has smaller departments that basically are easier to manage. I urge the Board of Finance to at least keep the 60/40% split and to not cut public services to the Town of Avon.
Mike Decicco, 16 Timber Lane: I’ve been coming to these public meetings for a decade or more and I’ve been pretty active as a member of the Taxpayer’s Association for several years. I have been listening to this debate and I’d like to make a couple of comments. For years I have seen the budget climb particularly for the Board of Education and as a Taxpayer’s Association member, it bothers me to hear the accusations that we were anti-education. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. What we want to see is the dollars spent judiciously and correctly and better uses of our resources rather than just spending. This is one of the problems with the education community, not just in Avon but in the whole Farmington valley and maybe through the United
States. Just like a lot of corporations and industries today – as they grow and grow and grow they become top heavy and I think I agree with the young woman that said we have too much administration. As a matter of fact I’ve read articles on the subject; there was a book published in 1994 that presented the results of 13 college educators who studied education in America. They pointed out that in 1950 the ratio to all members of the education staff in a community was 20 students per staff member. Today, it’s 9 to 1 and as a matter of fact, I noticed in today’s paper a letter written by a Mr. Erickson that went through the mathematics and in Avon, it’s actually 8 to 1. This is just an example of becoming top heavy. There are too many subjects that are being taken on by the school systems today that used to be parental responsibility. Maybe that’s where the money’s going.
Ms. Friedman: I just want to make one correction to the editorial that seems to be getting a lot of comment this evening. There are 16 administrators, not 50. I don’t know where that number came from but I would tell you that the frequent demand on our schools by special education, by the State and the services that call for social workers and psychologists and are mandates from the State. A lot of the time spent by the Assistant Principals are dealing with things that are required by the State.
Bob Bullis, 14 Stony Corners: I’ve lived here for about 30 years and I’m very proud to be a member of this community. However, it seems we have a couple of things facing us that are facing every community in the United States. How do we pay for all the things we want? Especially in an economic downtrend which is a global economic downturn. Japan has been
…….; Germany is headed there and we’re the next. Like it or not, that’s the reality of the world. Lets talk some facts: a 10% budget increase for 10 years would mean that your taxes would go up 2.6 times what you’re paying now. If you are paying $5,000 now, you’d be paying $13,000 in 10 years. A 5% increase would be 1.6 times. The 4.3% which we’re talking about today, is 1.5 times. Is that possible for us to absorb – yes, in a growing economy it is. In an economy that’s not growing, it’s not possible, it’s not realistic. It’s time we started to think about that. The second factor which is even more disturbing is the article that appeared in the Hartford Courant this last Friday about the new
community here in Avon that says two of the many things that made this property so attractive to new buyers is the tax rate and the schools. I agree. We’re giving education away right now. The fact of the matter is the Town cannot continue to do that. People have got to pay their own fair share to make a town. To have an attractive tax rate is an aberration; we cannot continue to go along that way. I would suggest very strongly to have a zero budget increase this year and that the Town Finance Committee starts to appoint a committee that would try to solve this problem. We cannot go along with business as usual.
Dotty Magda: I’ve lived here since 1959 and I’m a product of our education system so whatever I say is all your fault. I just recently moved back into town. My family has been here, my father was very involved with the P.T.O. he was president. My mother was a music teacher and they have watched over the years how this Town has grown and developed and the things that it has become and the panache that it had is wonderful. But, what’s happening is I’m listening and I’m looking – it’s divisive, it’s very black and white, it’s very much ….. if we can’t educate them, I doubt we’ll make them stupider than they are and well, if you can’t get a car …. folks, how about going back to where we used to be – there’s enough right here to remember when a community would pull together and find alternative ways to do things. We have people who are out of work who are well educated, can they come into our educational system and replace aides.
Kathy Zirolli, Tamara Circle - I keep hearing that some people think the children in Avon are getting a “private school education”. That is false. I think we should use caution in putting information in front of people if you’re not sure of the information. I currently have a child in pre-school, that’s a private school, and there is no way she could get the education at an Avon school. My daughter is in second grade at Pine Grove School – she is getting a wonderful education; I work with the teacher, I work with the bus driver, I work in every area, I volunteer my time. The amount of work those teachers – that librarian and aide does – what they do is incredible for a student. It’s not private school though. They’re not
getting half a private school education. A couple of things need to be done after this meeting, we need to remind folks that we’re neighbors and to try to take a more professional, calm approach and listen to the people. I appreciate hearing your views and I hope that you appreciate mine and I would love to see more folks volunteering at the schools because we need volunteers. After this is done, after we get past this frustration, there are some things that need to change in Town. I think we need to look at the Town Council and what they are voting for and understand how zoning is done better, I know that I need to. We need to try to get developers to pitch in and pay for the costs. As to the rainy day fund, I find this an interesting fact tonight and I hope to hear that the Council and the Board will reconsider their thoughts on that because maybe we have some needs that need to be considered. I will tell you that I will be looking
for Avon to come up with not just a Senior Center but a youth center because we have nothing for our youth to go to, to keep them out of trouble when they want to gather somewhere. I would hope that we will all look forward proactively. I do not in any way shirk my parental responsibilities, again, I work with the teachers and all the people here. As for the vice-principals I wish somebody would clarify what they do; part of what they do that I know is to help with all the mandates that keep being voted in. Those are programs ………. Please understand that the vice principals didn’t write these, but they have to manage them. Thank you.
Jennifer Wolfberg, Woodhaven Drive. My husband and I voted yes for the first budget and we urge you to adopt a 4.3% increase in the new budget. We, too, watch our dollars carefully. However, we are willing to give something up in our family budget in order to pay the additional taxes. This reasonable investment is worth the library, police, fire, roads and school services we receive. It’s an investment in our community, a community we hope to be a part if for many years to come. It is, however, in our opinion, a community that needs to make drastic changes in the way its citizens interact with the leaders and vice versa. While the 34% voter turnout is commendable, I firmly believe that more voters would turn out if more of them saw that budget ………. I would propose that our town leaders no longer wait for public opinion once a year, during the budget hearings. I believe they should be proactive, I suggest a public forum, televised on local cable access be held throughout the
year to talk about Avon’s overall plans for land use, housing, open space, recreation, historic preservation, the environment and economic developments. Invite town, state and federal representatives into our community to talk why government can’t ask for funding from developers to help support the needs of our school, and what’s the impact of binding arbitration on our union contracts, to name just a few topics. Educate our community. I suggest a town-wide survey be considered that reaches out the silent majority that aren’t sitting here tonight or voting. You’ll also find out what those who voted “yes” and “no” are truly thinking. It’s time to consider leading Avon in a different and proactive way.
Bob Creer, 518 Country Club Road - I’ve been a resident for about 17 years and I’d like to commend everybody who’s come up here and had the courage to speak because it takes a lot of courage to do that. I would encourage anybody else who is here sitting there saying gee I’d like to get up and say something, because it’s our meeting, and it’s our money. As an adult, I have to learn to learn the difference between my wants and my needs. Those are very tough decisions. I make those decisions most nights – if I don’t need them and I can’t afford them, then I have to say “no” to myself. When I went to my employer and gave them the budget they asked to me to propose to them of what I needed to run my department, you know
what they said to me? They said “NO”, go back and reduce it. What I’m saying to you tonight when you’re coming to us and saying we need more of your money – I’m going to say to you “I can’t afford it”. It would be nice, but I can’t afford it. When I went to school, there were over 40 kids per class in my school. It didn’t hurt me, our graduating class had the highest percentage of graduates going to college ever, ever. And there were 553 graduating in my senior class from high school. We didn’t have air conditioning, we didn’t have buses, we didn’t have high tech stuff – we had “get down, roll up your sleeves and do your homework and then you can participate in extra-curricular activities. I have never had a 5% increase – and I’ve been working since age 12 and I’m 62. I would challenge you – how many
people here have ever had a 5% increase? How can we afford this? How can we afford to spend more than we make? I can’t do that or I wouldn’t be able to live in Avon. Thank you.
Florence Stahl, 2 Sunset Trail: This is a good follow up to what that gentleman just said. The average pay raise in the Northeast, if you’re lucky, is 2.5%. That’s if you have a job. As many of you know, Social Security has increased 1.4%. Inflation is at 2.3%. Treasury Bills are at 1.17%. Please, Board of Finance, keep these economic benchmarks in mind when you make your final adjustments. There is no justification for the magnitude of the tax increases year after year. I also want to say that I’m very gratified that so many people spoke tonight. As you all know, most people will not speak at a public meeting for reasons of privacy and annononimity and perhaps a measure of intimidation, they simply will not get up and state their
opinions in an open forum. They are good citizens and the care deeply, but being able to speak in public should not be the only measure of their worth. So you then, the Board of Education have a difficult task of gauging the mood of those who are silent. You know that a 232 vote spread between “no” votes and “yes” votes is absolutely record setting in a Town like Avon and it must be acknowledged in a meaningful way. Thank you.
Diane Kowalczyk, 466 Country Club Road. My thought tonight is that we moved here a little over two years ago, not because of the school system, not because of the police, not because of the services, because of the mill rate. I used to live in Clinton – when I first moved here the mill rate was 27, I think and every year it goes up. When I can plan on some savings, it goes right out the window. I respect the need to support education; I’ve supported education just as much as everybody else has. However, I don’t have any kids in the school system and I won’t have in the future. Be that as it may, I will continue to support the school system. First of all, I have to think about the community, too. My first community is of two, then there is a
larger community and if I can’t afford the taxes, I might as well move out. This is the first time I’ve ever come to a Town Meeting – 44 years old and now I’m here because it’s very important to me, my family first, my community of 2 at home and my larger community of Avon. If I can’t support my community at home, I certainly can’t afford my town. We will not be able to take advantage of sewers because we are on a higher table; dump permits, that is our source of getting rid of our refuse. Our street has not been swept yet. I’m wondering where my other services are coming from. It may sound trivial, but these are services I pay for.
Tom Heavern, 3 Balsam Court – I’m relatively new to the Town of Avon. I came here and the first thing I did was enroll in the Police Academy of the Police Department because I was interested in the Police Department where I’ve had some experience. The first thing I noticed was the few number of officers you have. The National average for a town is 2.3 officers per thousand and you’re far from that. I must admit I was very impressed with the quality of the men and women we have here. But I noticed the amount of overtime that these people put in. I noticed also at that time, I can’t speak for the present administration, at that time the amount of communities they are calling on for assistance, from the towns of Simsbury and Farmington, etc. Is
that because we don’t have enough police officers? I know right now we don’t have enough and this is one of the items which is being cut from the budget. Probably 40% to 50% of the people who have spoken about community service are saying we need our police department and we need it up to strength. That 1.2 officers that you’re talking about is desperately needed. You should put them back and you should consider in future years bringing your department up to strength. Most of these officers go to school, they have multi talents, they are called upon by other communities to support them. While they are supporting them, we don’t have them in our town to protect us. I wonder are we cutting our services on the midnight shift? A person who is well informed told me that we have only a sergeant and one officer. If we have an accident, those two people would be tied up and we would have no protection whatsoever
on the streets. Again, I don’t know if that is true, but I beg you to consider what people who have asked for and put that officer back on the street. We should also invest in police cars. Having some experience, we can’t afford not to replace police cars on a timely basis. Most departments have a schedule year after year and if you follow that schedule you will not have a problem. Again, you can’t afford to take those cars off the street. Thank you.
Rob Brownell, 28 Lakeview Blvd. While the non-tenured teachers are getting their pay cut and they’re getting their health benefits taken away, why are other things being raised such as the superintendent’s salary. I’m not a tax payer and I‘m here to represent some of my teachers that don’t get as much money as should be and don’t get the health benefits that they need. They’re the people who asked me to be here and speak.
Ms. Friedman: The answer is non-tenured teachers are not getting health benefits taken away or pay cuts.
Robin Schwartz, 88 Harris Road: I’ve heard a lot of statistics tonight and I have some of my own. I supported the last budget and I support this one as well and I am for the increase that the Board of Finance is recommending. I think it is the best budget for the Town. I’d like every one else who has to make some sacrifice or adjustment to do this. I moved to Avon 2 or 3 years ago with my four children. I moved here primarily for the open spaces and proximity to my work. I realize it is our money but I have to think about what we’ve been getting. It’s a beautiful town. We have parks, we have an excellent police force, fire department, all of the people who are so involved in the community. And that also goes for the schools.
Maybe they aren’t as excellent as recommended, we don’t have classes the size of 40 but I’d like to quote from the National Education Association which recommends a teacher/student ratio of 15 to 1. We’re really not near that. We really do need to think about this in a positive way rather than a negative way. Students graduated from Avon High ……………… Students in smaller classes complete high school. There is a much lower drop out rate. The department of education reports on class size …… small class size with average student who improve………
David O’Leary, Lofgren Road. I’ve been in town for about seven years. I actually grew up in West Hartford and I have to first challenge the Board of Finance a little on the perception that they say the town has of being very affluent. I understand the perception, I understand we have to go to binding arbitration, that’s why the perception is out there. When I lived in West Hartford every time we looked over the hill to Avon, we referred to “the sticks”. We are very fortunate in the Town of Avon, we have very good construction and there have been wonderful homes built in this town, very expensive homes which I’m sure has changed the perception of this town. As you drive around the Town of Avon there are a lot of older homes which I’m
sure contributes to the upbringing of this town, so I think the Board of Finance actually owes the Town a change of the perception that we’re an affluent situation. I’d also like to comment to the Town Council, using your numbers, so I don’t get confused that the numbers are wrong. The Town Council took the last vote very seriously and took the proper actions. They are proposing a 2.5% increase in the budget. Now you can sit there and argue over the pension increase that needs to be done, but that’s a liability we’re all responsible for the people who brought this town to where it is and the people who still serve this town. If the Town Council took that, it came up to 2.5% increase. What I don’t see from the Board of Ed including the chair person, is not a complete explanation as to why we have a 6.2% increase for the Board of Ed when the Town Council ………. Each time the
question is posed to the Board of Ed the perception is that the Chair Person …………. I think the Board of Ed actually owes the Town a sincere apology for putting a contract in place that gives teachers somewhere in the vicinity of 4% to 9% annual increase in a situation where you’ve heard from most of the residents in town they’re at zero increases, no increases, losing jobs. I’d like the Board of Ed to address the town as to why it needs a 6.2% increase. I also see that when they have to cut things they put the things that affect the children as high priorities because that gets the most attention. Nobody is asking teachers to take a cut; but people in this town sure would love to have other things cut from the Board of Ed that may not be focused on the children; focus on some of the other activities that are not necessary to get out there. Get after other activities that in this day and age they may not be able
to afford.
Mr. Harrison: Everybody on every one these elective boards serve is operating on the best of motives. There’s nobody here that’s trying to do anything that hurts the town. We can have differences among ourselves about priorities, about how much is enough, how much is too much, but everybody here is trying to do the best they possibly can and that’s on all the boards, no matter what position they take and I’d like to make that sense to every body in the room here. There’s nobody playing games with the town.
Chris Gaffney, Scoville Road. I’m in a kind of unique situation here. I just got back from college, graduated and I’m back in the community now and I saw a sign about 3 days ago on this meeting so I figured I come check it out. Maybe one interesting thing to look would be to break down the increased cost on page 6 of the packet. If you break the increase down by 52 weeks now you’re looking at the first one, the $83,000 residential assessment breaks down to a weekly increase of $1.87. When I got back to town I went to Dunkin’ Donuts, I ordered a 16 oz coffee and it cost me $1.91. Now I don’t own a house so I’m not paying the property taxes myself, but I got to say that a cup of coffee versus an increased budget for education, well if you look at it
that way and go down the list, the $165,000 assessment comes to $3.71 a week; the $248,000 comes to $5.51; $330,000 comes to $7.42 and $412,500 comes to $9.29. It’s just a different way of looking at it and I thought I’d bring that to your attention.
Margaret Bratton: I’m a parent of children in the school system and I think the other speaker wasn’t commenting on the 10% increase for the superintendent, I think he was worrying about compounding contractual salaries. Having said that, revaluation next year will increase the assessments and although the mill rate will have to be balanced out somewhat, it would still mean that taxes will go up. With a 4.3% tax increase, the Board of Ed actually gets more than 6% of the tax increase. The Town Council is the board that keeps taking all the hits it seems. I’d like to know why Avon’s Board of Ed needs such a large increase compared to our neighbors. Canton approved a 3.8% increase for the Board of Ed and they have a lot of roads and very little business,
Farmington’s increase for the Board of Ed was 2.4%, Simsbury’s Board of Ed increased 4.5% and they have less business. The Board of Ed’s not taking 6% of the cuts, they are getting 6% increases. The 10 year chart in the budget packet doesn’t show any history of …..My husband and I have lived to see my parents ……… we’d like to be able to continue to put aside for our children’s college education and we’d like to have our children return here. We can’t control our job losses, our salary decreases, increased college tuition and increased property assessments but we can control tax increase percentage by voting “no” next Wednesday to any tax increase that’s not close enough to the average rate of inflation of 2.5% Thank you.
Chris Kaswer, 35 Hemlock Lane: I just want to say that this is a very interesting discussion tonight, a lot of good information. I think we have to ask ourselves why we’re here. We’re here because a budget got voted down and then you have to ask why was it voted down. I think if you continue that process eventually it will end up sort of hopefully get back to the root cause and the root cause is there seems to be more need than there is income and part of that problem seems to be stemming from the number of people coming into town. I think, I’ve heard it said at other meetings, and I hear it tonight, that obviously it’s out of control that if you add people it costs more to educate them. I think it’s clear the cost of education in this town is one of
the main topics and issues of discussion. Those budgets need to be looked at very carefully – I’m sure they have been. It’s a different situation today to educate children. I’m an engineer and you know I don’t use a slide rule – I use sophisticated computer software. We can’t do the same things we did 10, 20, 30 years ago. It isn’t good enough just to have a building with four walls and a ceiling. I wish our taxes could go down but the reality of it is that things are different today and some of those needs must be addressed. As far as class sizes go I can tell you that my wife volunteers quite often at schools; one of our three kids, we have triplets in the school system, and she volunteers on a regular basis because one of the teachers had requested the help of the parents because they feel that they are unable to give the students the amount of attention that he feels they should have in
order learn and comprehend the material that he would like to see them understand. Maybe he’s putting the level a little bit higher than some of the other teachers, but I can tell you that the results are very clear. The other two children are doing very well but this one teacher goes the extra step. Fortunately we have people who volunteer to help. I would like to see extra teachers. It so happens the children are in the fifth grade and this seems to be a spike, it’s the highest population in all the grades right now. I’d like to see an additional couple of teachers – every year the numbers get higher and every year it’s because people move into town. Well, if that’s what we keep going back to, that situation has got to be addressed. How do we stop that?. How do we control the number of people coming in if we can’t afford to educate those extra numbers because it costs more than what we’re collecting in taxes. We’re not going to solve this over night, but we have to
think about why we live here. I had it easy – I came here from out of town – I used to live in Connecticut and when it came time to pick a town to live in the folks that have been here for 10, 20, 30 years said come here. It takes time to build this kind of reputation and build character that makes it attractive. I’d like to be able to continue that kind of attitude and that kind of support so that somebody down the road can do the same thing. Thank you for supporting the Town.
Carl Candels, 6 Mountain View Ave. I’m a product of the town of Avon, I’ve lived here for 70 years – I love it. My father said to me one day, if I can’t afford it, I can’t need it. That’s a thought. It’s rough to realize we’re in a rough situation; I think when there were good times, things were put into the Board of Education for extra programs and they want to continue and they want new things – it’s hard to say no to some things. I asked Father McCarthy the other day, how come you’re giving 500 Turkey Dinners every Thanksgiving and Christmas in Avon, affluent Avon! He said – because a lot of people are out of work. We’re all having rough times. I’m retired now, I’ve lived her
for, as I said, 70 years. There’s nothing wrong with saying NO to a tax increase – I’m not embarrassed to say no – for 70 years I’ve lived in this town that has grown to beautiful. We have many more needs now and many more neighbors and when they’re here they want the best. If not, they’ll move out. I’m talking about the seniors. I have a limited budget now and I shop at flea markets. Everybody should go to my flea mart – we’ll give you a good deal. The thing is you have to make money different ways. So I say to you, please bring the budget to a place where we can afford it.
Tom Austin, Parkview Drive: I have three sons that went through your school system; they got a good education. I think if the teachers get a 5% raise, fine, but I think you can cut somewhere in the Board of Education, somewhere in the salary account. I hear the vice-principal gets $95,000 – they could take a cut. However, I do want to thank the teachers for giving my kids a good education.
Denise Rinehart, 65 Harris Road: I’d just like to voice my support for the teachers and the vice-principals. I know people have been talking about them tonight. When I was in high school, the vice principal was somebody who gave out punishment – you know, if you didn’t go to class you got sent to the vice-principal. Now the vice principal does a lot more than that. The
Vice-principal at Thompson Brook School is also in charge of special education. That’s a big job because as other people have mentioned there are a lot of state mandates involved and there’s no mention of who has to take care of them. It’s not something they can say we’ll do it because you mandated it but it can’t be done. Just before the first budget workshop, there was an article in the Hartford Courant that Avon Schools has raised the level of their language arts. That program was created by two vice-principals, one from Road Brook School who is also teacher of the year and Pat Smith who was vice principal at Pine Grove at the time. We’re not talking about people just sitting in an office giving out punishment or … I just wanted to stand up
for them.
Dave Wheeland, 38 Copplestone: I just want to switch gears a bit, I saw on the Town budget reductions that we’re not going to have a squad car and we’re not going to have a police officer so I just want to do a little creative thinking here. If you’re like me, on occasion you drive on Avon Mountain Road and if you’re like me, there’s always this guy coming up right behind you trying to push you away. It happens to me quite a few times and I start looking at my dash board and I’m already going 10 miles an hour over the speed limit. I drive between Hartford and Avon and I see that going through West Hartford, very often there are police officers at check points. My guess is that Avon does it on a far less frequent basis. Couldn’t we
increase this and with the money from the tickets we could hire another officer.
The Meeting adjourned at 10:15 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Thomas A. Gugliotti, Ssecretary
Attest: Elinor Burns, Clerk
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