 |
BOARD OF FINANCE PUBLIC HEARING
April 1, 2004
Minutes
I. a. Chairman Tom Harrison called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. in the Community Room, Avon Senior Center. Members Tom Gugliotti, Bill Hooper, Steve McGuff, Mike Monts, Jim Speich and Mark Zacchio were in attendance.
b. Mr. Harrison led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance.
c. The Chairman convened the meeting and explained the purposes and procedures to be followed. He announced first the Board of Education, the Town Council and the Board of Finance will make their presentations, after which the floor would be open for comments and questions on the material presented. After we have listened to comments and questions tonight, we will adjourn and consider your comments at a series of workshop meetings to be held April 7, April 13 and on April 15 we will present our recommended budget to the Town Council to be referred to the Town Meeting on May 3rd, and that meeting will then be adjourned to Referendum on May 13th.
2. Chairman Harrison called on Town Attorney Dwight Johnson to outline the legal procedures of the meeting and comments on the budget process.
3. The Chairman called upon the Chairman of the Board of Education, Peggy Roell who introduced the members of the Board of Education and welcomed the audience. She then introduced David Shopis, the Chairman of the Budget Committee.
4. Mr. Shopis presented the Board of Education budget with a slide presentation, a copy of which is attached and made a part of these minutes.
5. Chairman Harrison called upon Richard Hines, Chairman of the Town Council to present the proposed Town Council, Sewer, Debt Service and Capital Improvement Budget for FY2004/05. Mr. Hines eulogized former Avon resident Beatrice Murdock France on her passing on March 24th. He reported Mrs. Murdock served the town faithfully and well for many years before retiring to Cape Cod and he asked for a moment of silence and prayers for her family.
6. Town Council Chairman Hines presented the Town budget with a power point presentation that is attached to these minutes and made a part thereof.
7. Chairman Harrison called upon Board of Finance member Steve McGuff for a power point overview of the Board’s interpretation of the financial climate in Avon. Mr. McGuff presented current statistics which ultimately will affect the annual operating budgets for the Town. His presentation is attached to these minutes and made a part thereof.
8. Chairman Harrison then called upon the audience for questions and comments and directs questions to the proper official. He advised that any registered voter may voice opinions, comments, questions on any of the budgets as presented. He requested that the speaker identify himself/herself for the record.
Dottie Magda, 12 Crestwood Drive – I’ve been here since 1959 and you guys have done a phenomenal job on giving us information. One piece of information that I don’t see, we’re comparing ourselves to so many other places in cost of teachers, cost of capital improvement, things like this. Where do we stand as a Town on per-capita taxes. What is our per-capita tax as people in the State. How does the tax we are currently paying compare to the rest of the State.
Chairman Harrison – I don’t know if we have that information on hand, but we can get it and will put it on our web-site. Mr. Hines –You might want to say how we stand on a State level on an equalized base; also the CRCOG. We are #4 out of 29 on an equalized tax basis and I think #113 from out of 169 towns in the State. Mr. Harrison – It doesn’t answer your question, but on the State’s methodology of equalizing mill rates, of the 169 towns, Avon is 113th from the highest effective tax rate, so we’re pretty good on that context. The Towns that are better than us are mostly down in Fairfield County where they have huge Grand Lists. I was at a meeting in Greenwich the other day; Avon’s Grand List just went up to 2
billion, their Grand List is 20 billion. There’s a big, big difference. We do compare very favorably with towns throughout the State. That’s not the question you asked, but we’ll get that information for you.
Bill Blackham, 5 Fieldstone Lane – In the Capital Region Council of Governments in the Tax per Capita, we’re #1. Resident – What’s the source of your information? Mr. Blackham, the Taxpayers Association.
Mr. Harrison – okay, let’s treat everyone equally and carefully; the gentleman gave the information. Resident – Does that make it bad information? Mr. Harrison – you don’t have to ask that question, sir, you’re a resident of Avon and you’re entitled to speak and everybody will make whatever judgments they choose to make.
Linda Merlin, 48 Highgate Drive – Tonight, as opposed to other times that I have spoken before this Board, I am here not to speak just for myself. Tonight I am actually here to speak for over 1,000 voters. Over 1,000 voters have signed a petition to let you know how they feel. I don’t want to waste my 2 or 3 minutes on why I say over 1,000, I believe the number is 105 or 106 but some were just handed in to me. I would like to read to you the petition that was signed.
“I, the undersigned, am deeply troubled by the continued decrease in services in the Avon Public Schools. I am particularly concerned with growing class size as well as teacher cuts, the sports program, theater arts and enrichment, among others. A 5.5% budget increase will not provide adequate services and maintain the level of achievement expected and desired in a town like Avon. I understand that for the last several years the Board of Finance has failed to see a willingness to support higher budgets and is, therefore, reluctant to put forth a budget that meets the needs of the Town’s growing community. By signing this petition, it is my intent to let the Board of Finance know that I am unequivocally committed to supporting a budget that includes the Board of Education’s 7.76%
requested increase and that I am committed to vote accordingly at the Referendum on May 12th, 2004. I am further committed to obtaining an absentee ballot if I cannot be in Town on the 12th, to insure that this commitment is carried through.” Well, the petition and the 1,000 plus signatures that accompany it speak for themselves. There are just a few comments I want to add. The first is that this petition does not by any means represent an exhaustive search for every supporter of the budget. There are many people who did not have the opportunity to sign it who I know would have. In fact, this petition has only been circulating the last 2 to 3 weeks; if it had been started just a week earlier, there would have been that many more signatures. I should also add that this petition was not generated by any organization. It is purely a grass roots effort of voters seeking to
communicate their feelings on this issue in a manner that you, the Board of Finance, might take seriously. Second, I want to say that I don’t know how many people will speak here tonight, maybe 50 or so, but over 1,000 voters are speaking to you right now with their signatures and they are asking you, the Board of Finance, not to cut back on the Board of Education’s budget before sending it to Referendum. Over 1,000 people are telling already, that they will vote to support that budget – they are not saying that they will support whether you have trimmed down to 5.5% or anything close to it. I hope that you will hear them, and I respect their numbers. Put the Board of Education’s budget, as is, to Referendum and let the Town decide. On a final mundane administrative note, because signatures have been handed in to me right up until this evening, I have not had a chance to copy them all and I will deliver them tomorrow, to someone
on the Board of Finance.
Mr. Harrison: One question, just so I understand the wording of the petition. Is the irrevocable commitment to support related solely to the Board of Education or is it to both Budgets that have been submitted tonight? Ms Merlin, it says the Board of Education, but I know for me, it’s the entire Town budget. Mr. Harrison: Okay, so it’s the full 7.6%. Thank you. Ms. Merlin: I know it’s the Board of Ed’s 7.76% budget is what it says, I just want to say for me it is the support of the entire – the combination of the Town Council and the Board of Education together. I think most people understood that.
Mr. Harrison: Thank you and I want to commend you and whoever worked with you on that, it is an example of grass roots Democracy.
Joanne Campbell, 39 Meadow Ridge. I’m speaking as President of the Volunteer Fire Department supporting the budget. I just want to give an explanation so people will have a little more understanding when they read in your packet that the Fire Protection Budget which in the current budget is $1,230,000 dollars works. We submit a budget to the Town Manager, an operating budget for the Fire Department, this year it was –2% from last year’s budget. We recognize the importance of keeping costs down as much as possible. In addition to that amount of money, there’s expenses paid by the Town which includes our 2 part-time employees. As Mr. Hines said, we wanted to bump one of those part-time positions to full time, but obviously we’ll try to do that again
maybe next year because of the increased work of the Fire Department. I don’t know if the Fire Hydrants in Avon are owned by the Water Company, so that rent or lease, I’m not sure which, but we have to pay for the use of those hydrants. That $390,000 for the next budget year. Because of the building, there are more fire hydrants. Also, the Fire Marshal’s office salaries get charged to Fire Protection budget and other miscellaneous things. Overall, the operating that we are working on is a 2% decrease and we support the budget. Also the tax abatement for Volunteer Fire Protection is all to our benefit as tax payers, that we maintain a volunteer Fire Department in Avon. It would cost millions of dollars to have a paid fire department so I think that the expense of a tax abatement, the maximum we can get is $1,000, is extremely beneficial to the ___________. We really appreciate the Council’s work on that and also
in the Capital Budget, SCBA’s up to date safety equipment is essential for fire fighting. We hope the Town Council recognizes the importance of this. Again, I support the budget and I urge all of you to vote “yes” because as all of you know it’s a combined budget, the Board of Ed and Town, and any time that cuts need to be made, all departments are affected.
Bob Paine, Tamara Circle. I’ve been here since 1977, so I’m somewhat of a newcomer. The only thing I want to point out is that most of you have had a notice from the Assessor’s Office about the revaluation on the value of your property. If you will compare that to when you purchased, or moved in here, and it is over 25 years old, you’re property taxes will go up, without this budget. If your house is newer, whether you bought it new or you bought a more recently built house, your property tax will go down or this budget may not even affect it. When you think of whether people are going to have a financial impact to do anything tonight as a result of this budget – just keep that in mind. Unfortunately, the majority of people who are on fixed
incomes, or who are Veterans, happen to be living in the older houses. So they got the bulk of the revaluation increase. If your house did not go up in value over 24%, you will get a property tax increase. If it went up in value more than 24% you will get a property tax increase without this budget. Thank you.
Susan Lane, Rexinger Lane: I’m a 15 year resident of Avon and have 3 children who are either presently in or have gone through the Avon school system. I am also a school nurse in another school district. I’m concerned about the changes I see in the Avon school district over the past 2 or 3 years. Numerous physical education and health education programs have been omitted; programs that I feel are vitally important to the health and academic success of the children in our Town. There are numerous studies that have been done and published by the Surgeon General of the United States and the Center for Disease Control..………. As a result, cardiovascular disease in children is dramatically rising. The CDC warns that 1 in 3 children born in the year 2000
will become diabetic unless we change the eating and physical activity patterns of our children. The subsequent health care benefits cost may bankrupt our nation. A strong …. between children’s health and their level of activity. Numerous studies have proven that increased physical activity increases test scores, particularly in ……. The bottom line is that children need to be healthy to learn. Physical education and sports programs, often the first to suffer the budget ax are clearly vital to successful learning. Healthy children do learn better. In light of these facts I’m concerned that Avon has already eliminated physical education in the 11th and 12th grades, and health education is limited to only 1 semester in the 9th grade. These are critical time periods of development of lifetime health and physical activity attitudes. Developmental and interscholastic
teams at the Middle and High school levels have also been eliminated. If we do not have an opportunity as a community, to vote on the proposed Board of Education’s budget increase, then more physical activity and health education opportunities will be lost. The few sports teams we have left will be made up of elite athletes with the students who cannot beat these teams left with no opportunity to participate in physical activities including regular gym classes in the upper grades. I recently attended a conference sponsored by the State Department of Education on healthy children and Connecticut schools; 85 school districts in Connecticut were represented and it was clear that Avon is moving backwards instead of forwards on this vital issue. As a tax payer, I am not happy about a tax increase, but as a citizen I feel it is our duty to provide for the health and well being of our children. I think it is important to remember that schools not only
serve the community, they build the community. Please accept the Board of Education’s proposed 7.76% budget increase. Thank you.
Chuck Ray, 92 Avonridge: I’d like to speak out briefly in support of the Board of Education’s proposed budget. That’s one of the things I like for them to do and I’d like them to continue that work. At the risk of playing dumb with numbers, I broke down the impact between the budget as it is and the proposed budget. A house in Avon, assessed at $200,000. with a market value of $284,000, taxes would increase $5.00 a month; a market value of $428,000 would be about $8.00 a month; a market value of $571,000, less than $12.00 a month. I think to a lot of people in this room think that our kids are worth that amount. Thank you.
Boris Traktovenko, 16 Sedgewood Road: Sorry about my English, but believe me, I’m not mentally incapacitated. I listened that everybody to make budgets smaller and smaller. But for some reason, for many years increase of the budget I believe increase of the average income of the town. How could this be when everybody suggests we support the budget for the schools. In 2002 the schools wanted 12.9%, 2003 they wanted 9.8%, this year they want 7.7%. If you look for 3 years and you give what they want, it will be 43.4% increase. In reality, they got 7.5%, …. It will still increased 22% in compound for the 3 years. It’s very - it reminds me of story – one boat, gentleman is dying and he wants to leave to his oldest son $500,000, for young
son, $300,000 and for daughter for $800,000. Where is this money? The difference is I believe there is they plan for what they want to spend, and they go to us and ask for money but in any business they project their money for next year and then accordingly they plan to project. If any business just decided they want this – this – this and then tried to find the money, they would become bankrupt because …. The only thing to make the budget is just to base on what we got now project what is the next year. A reasonable figure, multiplied by inflation and multiplied by the increase of the population and from this you have to plan budget, otherwise sooner or later …. I believe I read in Avon the cost for school is $6,000 per pupil ($10,000) My point is I don’t know how you distribute money but if you go high than average increase of income we will come to some ….
V. Santos, 63 Meadow Ridge: I would like to ask 3 questions. If I run over my time, I beg your indulgence. (Mr. Harrison: We’ll stick to the schedule for now, Mr. Santos.) The 3 questions are “Why me?”, “Can we afford it?” and “When do we begin?” Why me – I’m not speaking for myself, in the handout, it was not as assumption by the Town, but approved by the Board of Finance; there’s a sheet of paper that shows a summary of impact of the revaluation on the different homes in town based on price segments. In that table you will see that there are 3,287 homes that will be severely impacted by the revaluation because of the change in the depreciation policy for all your homes. This policy was not
applied to all the homes in Avon; therefore, it could be classified as discriminatory. When a certain class of homes revaluation have been changed and the exclusion of later homes, then the policy was not applied uniformly. The question is ‘ why not uniformly? Why just for some of us? (Mr. Harrison: I can respond to that, Mr. Santos, the valuations are based on actual market value, that’s it.) If you go through the mechanics of revaluation, the first step in establishing revaluation is the value of the land. Today (Mr. Harrison: Mr. Santos, I don’t mean to cut you off, but the revaluation is not on the agenda for tonight. There was a process that was followed, there was an opportunity to have an informal meeting with the Assessor’s office, the right to file appeals. We’re not here tonight to talk about whether the process worked the way you would have liked it. The answer is Market Value is how it was done, sir.) Mr. Santos: I understand but the impact of the
revaluation has also impacted the taxes of those residents who have affected by the policy change. Going on to the second question-can we afford it? When I attend the Town Council meeting, I hear this question once in a while and my ears perk up because I thought it was a good question. We have to ask the question, can we afford it? The questions is specific and it relates in particular to the question of do we have the money to pay for this? I think the question can we afford it is more apropos during the budget season when you have to look at the total expenditures that the Town will face for the next year. The measure of whether we can afford 57.4 million next year is to look at State Guidelines. Our State Guidelines state that after revaluation year, the effective tax rate for the year should not exceed 1.5%, Section 12.2.d of the General Statutes. The budget exceeds the guidelines by 6.1 million dollars. We will need more
than six years of net Grand List growth to bridge that 6.1 million dollars. (Mr. Harrison, you have about 30 seconds. If you would like to wait until everyone has spoken, we will give you more time then.) I would like to ask if you would like to yield your time to me, I’ll be glad to … (Mr. Harrison: Somebody asked me that before the meeting and I said we’re not going to do yielding times until everybody has spoken first. It’s not fair because we don’t know how many people would like to speak.) Then we go to the handout and let me direct you the third page; people have been supporting the education budget; I do support the education budget; but I want them to make some educated decisions. On the third page of the hand-out is a summary of the budgeted increases for the Board of Education and the Town. The margin of costs for one additional pupil is less than $500. You can dispute this;
I’m not the wizard of oz, I took that number from the green book of the Board of Education. (Mr. Harrison: Mr. Santos, is this your third question because your time is up. If you have a question, I’ll let you ask the question or I’ll recognize you after others have spoken.) The question is when are we going to realize that the amount of money being asked by the Board of Education does not go to the Children; it goes to the teachers.
Mr. Harrison: Let me respond to the second question you asked, Mr. Santos. You made reference that there is a State guideline of what is the appropriate level of taxation after a Referendum. That is not a guideline, sir. What that is, that Statute was enacted following a revaluation of Hartford in the late 1980’s. It was designed to provide a basis to make some adjustments to shift some of the taxing to commercial and industrial. There is no State guideline on what is the appropriate level of taxation. You’ve seen on the chart that was in our presentation that there is nobody at that level. That is not a guideline, it is not a suggestion, it is simply a trigger point by which a municipal government can put in certain credits and circuit breakers.
There is not State guideline, sir, on what is the appropriate level of taxation. Anyone else who would like to speak?
Valerie Farro, 88 Daventry Hill: First I want to make it clear that I whole heartedly endorse the Board of Education’s budget proposed and I hope you truly understand that the critical … is just a reflection of what is out there. Obviously we know the Town continues to grow. I have been hammering for a number of years and I believe in the last six months, I believe several people have witnessed the wake-up call that something has to be done. I think it is all of our jobs to make sure our neighbors are able to get out and vote. Certainly I think tonight is a good indication of where the critical mass will be. First, a procedural point, I believe this Public Hearing was duly and legally noticed? (Yes.) If that’s the case I want to make a motion
and I do need a second, to admit only the Town of Avon’s prepared literature that was on the table as part of this record. (Mr. Harrison: I’m going to rule that out of order because we have had a long tradition at these Public Hearings they offer the public, any group or entity has the right to put literature on the table, whether you want to follow it or whether we follow it is up to us.) Then, I will counter with a point of order, because you failed to distinguish between the Town of Avon literature and other literature, so you either have read into the record and distinguish that for the attendees so that when someone comes into the Town of Avon to review the record, that person will know because they were not at this meeting. You need to distinguish that right now. (Mr. Harrison, I think Mr. Hines identified which are the Town’s documents that were prepared.) There’s more confusion back
there. (Mr. Harrison, to clarify that, there are two hand-outs that were prepared by the Town, one is the one that says “Town of Avon Public Hearing”. There is a second one that’s the Board of Education’s. It says “Avon Board of Education”. Those are the handouts that were prepared by the Town. Any other handouts, while people have the right to submit it, we will stipulate for the record it is not one that was prepared by the Town.) Just a quick question? Has the Board of Finance or anyone else in Town analyzed the census tract on the 2,000 census data? Looking demographically at how many folks are actually eligible for the property tax relief versus how many actually use it. Do we have those numbers? We should know that figure?
Mr. Hines: I think we know we increased the program to go to higher income levels beyond what the State did. At that time, we estimated the cost could be as much as $50,000 to the Town. It only ran a few thousand. That said that many potential home owners did not apply for it but we don’t know all the reasons why. We’re doing our best; we try to let them know. Recently Councilwoman Diane Hornaday attended a meeting with the Senior Citizens, they have a luncheon meeting, they went over all the increased programs that we have to let them know. We’re putting it in our Newsletter, I think there are probably more people eligible at the upper end. Probably the lower level is pretty accurate.
Ms. Farro: So, the answer is no one from the Town has analyzed the U.S. Census data from 2000 that’s just been released in the last month or two. Now that we have a full census available to us, has anyone in Town performed an analysis to determine exactly how many people in the Town of Avon would be eligible for property tax relief.
Mr. Hines: That may have been done by the Assessor – I don’t know at this point what the situation is. I do know that not all the census figures are too accurate.
Ms. Farro: Although I have heard the Board of Education’s budget and I have reservations on the Town Budget, but what I am vehemently opposed to is the continued widening of roads and the acceptance of State and Federal dollars where we have to accept across the board their guide-lines for building roads and specifically I’m talking about Old Farms Road. What I encourage the Town to do is to conduct a public information meeting because this thing has been festering for at least 12 years; I think we need to revisit the public acceptance of widening that road and the compromising of wetlands when a practical alternative is available. I think a minor relocation of that road would be available without a major widening. Hopefully let’s talk about this for the next couple of
months. People need to be informed.
Jamie DiPace, 55 Wheeler Road. A 47 year resident of the Town, and Chief of the Avon Volunteer Fire Department. I’m very proud to be here. I’m standing here in support of the budget, especially the entire budget and I really love seeing all these hockey players here. I also see a strong number of people out here who would do a hell of a job on the Fire Department. I
Got to say that to keep our budget down we need volunteer fire fighters. I’m very serious about that. We’re fighting it, day and day to keep our Fire Department Volunteers. We’re doing pretty well right now, but we gain some and we lose some and we really need folks to help. If you’ve got the time, we’re looking for fire fighters. Again, that’s the number one thing in our budget and it doesn’t cost a dime. Secondly, part of what we’re doing, you heard we are trying to replace our SCBA, that’s our Self-contained Breathing Apparatus. It’s 15 years old. I’ve got volunteer fire fighters that are running into burning buildings in hazardous conditions, with air packs on their backs that are 15 years old. We
band-aid them, we put them back together again, paint them; we do the best we can but they’ve got to be replaced. So please, support the budget.
Sara Ray, Avonridge, I would like to say that I wholeheartedly support the Budget, the Board of Education Budget as well as the Town’s. I’d like you to consider to send it to the voters and let the voters make the decision whether or not to accept that figure. Contrary to some belief, our teachers are not overpaid. In fact their salaries are well within line and competitive to other towns. To attract a quality, and a better quality teacher, you’ve got to pay for what you get. Our children are worth every dime of it.
Denyse Reinhard, 65 Harris Road: I just want to echo what Sara just said, to please leave both budget as they are. I think the Town is very well run, the schools are very well run and I think you should just put it to the voters. Do we still have money in reserve? (Yes) Do we have $200,000? (Mr. Harrison: There are different General Funds; some are reserved for specific purposes. The one most people seem to have their eyes on is called the Undesignated Balance. I think it’s around 3.8 million.) Well, if we have $3.8 billion, I think we should write the check tomorrow for the budget; stuff the fire department needs, police officer … (Mr. Harrison: Just a point of information, that money is not
sitting in a cigar box waiting for somebody to dip into it. There are procedures; for example, at our meeting in March, we approved the use of about $290,000 of that Undesignated Balance to purchase that house for possible library expansion and we also used $9,000 of it, each time at the request of the Council, to do some repairs to the pumps and filters at Sycamore Pool. We do use it; but it’s got to be done through a process. That’s how that works..
Nina Binin, 31 Old Wood Road. I’ve lived in Avon for 17 years and I’m in favor of us voting on the budget as it stands. Personally, I have no idea how the town can operate on such a tight budget and I give them a lot of credit. I think Denyse Reinhard raised some very important points that I’d like to reemphasize for you. I went to the library today to look through the budget as proposed. This budget does not include any money from the Undesignated Fund Balance and I think that the fact that you, yourself, stated that we’re one of only 55 Towns in the country that have AAA rating – I think this is a luxury of boasting rights and I don’t think that we should continue this. I understand also that the Council has made it a policy to try to work it’s way to having 10% of each annual budget as Fund Balance. I think just like the State guidelines, I think that’s all it should be and according to the budget that I was reading today at the library, right now our Fund Balance is in
excess of 7% - that by the end of this fiscal year, you’re estimating it to go to 8% and then the Fund Balance will go up in concert with this budget. I don’t think that should be a policy this year, at all. I think if any think we should some of our fund balance to help defray the cost of revaluation and its impact on the budget this year. I think you should be thinking about the net growth each year; I don’t think this is the way we should be running our town. I understand we need this fund to replace the pump at Sycamore here, and for rainy day kinds of things. A large undesignated fund, especially this year with revaluation, I strongly think you should reconsider your policy.
Mr. Harrison: Do you have a suggestion on what proportion of that Fund Balance we should be using for this year? Do you want to make a recommendation to us?
Ms. Binin: I think that’s a thing you might want to consider. Think that 7% of our budget should be tops. This is your choice as a policy body, but this project to gradually work our way up to 10%, I just think is putting the squeeze on tax payers that I don’t think is realistic in this day and age. We have a need for the public services that you are not providing such as and the fact that we have a growing population in our schools that needs to be covered. I’d like you to reconsider where your policy will fit in. The level of expenditure in the budget, I think we should vote on that. What you have in the budget is something that the tax payers should vote on and if they feel it is necessary you should use Fund Balance to fund it.
Chris Moore, Foxcroft Run: Spoke in favor of the Board of Education budget as well as the athletic program.
Bob Worgaftik: 25 St. Andrew’s Drive: Strongly supported the Board of Education’s budget.
Margaret Bratton, Old Mill Road: Spoke in support of both budgets and considering revaluation, recommends use of Fund Balance to offset increase in taxes.
Mr. Harrison: Margaret, this is not to be critical, it’s to help give us guidance. You suggested that there’s enough money in the surplus that would basically cover the 3 something million combined, if we use that up, what do we use next year to replace it. We have about 3.8 million in the Undesignated Fund Balance, I think the increases are 3 something million so we would effectively use up the entire rainy day fund. If we do that, what do we do next year?
Ms. Bratton: I thought the numbers were higher than that. I just seems like - when do we ever use it? It doesn’t make sense that we have all that there and never use it. Especially in a big year like this, where people are being hit hard with layoffs, values are up so high, there are so many things that are causing problems for individuals and tax payers, but it just doesn’t make sense to me. It didn’t seem to add up and it still doesn’t.
Carolyn Ostafin, Old Kings Road: Just a few observations. It’s hard for me to see students as part of a spread sheet, but I guess that is the nature of the beast for the Board of Finance. I’ve heard a lot of negative comments, going to the grocery store, the library, about teacher’s salaries, about how we have too many vice principals, too many office staff, too many guidance counselors, too many paras and too many expensive teachers. It’s about time the teacher’s salaries were brought up to the point that they are and I think that they are well deserved. These people have to go back to get their Master’s Degrees, they have to go get recertified, and quite frankly growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, I didn’t have this quality of
teachers. They are outstanding in this Town and that’s why people move here. The other point I’d like to make is I’ve also heard a lot of negative comments about our Superintendent and I can tell you right now whether you agree with him all the time, or you disagree with him sometimes, I have never met a gentleman like this man who gives of his free time to attend many newcomers parent meetings that the PTOs hold, he picks up that phone and gets back to you in a very timely fashion and I think it’s a disgrace that people question his integrity along with our principals. The teachers in this town are not going to stand up, who may be citizens also, and fight for their salaries and fight for their jobs. I think a lot of people will do that. I also took a trip down memory lane, I went to one of the schools libraries and I took out some old year books. It was very interesting what was in place during the 60’s and
70’s. Also very interesting were the people in the back who take out advertising for the year books; a lot of them are still here. They support the schools. I really don’t think they’d want to look at these kids and say that your teachers are overpaid; you don’t need vice-principals and you don’t need health services and I would like to invite everybody in this room to the Avon Middle School on May 11th at 7:00 p.m. to hear two Social Workers – one from the Middle School and one from the High School – to discuss health issues and major concerns that are going on in our students’ lives. It’s a different world. It’s not the same world that I grew up in and whether it’s better or worse, it’s their world and we all need to be concerned with these children. Thank you.
Dan O’Connell, I’m a senior at Avon High School. I know that we need to talk with charts and numbers when we are looking at these sorts of things. I’m here tonight to present a students perspective of what’s going on. The school system’s grown, and this is an indisputable fact. And it’s going to continue to grow, which is also an indisputable fact. I’m here to let you know that as students we feel this, and we feel this is a budget that doesn’t follow the road. When we are in classes of 25 students and greater we feel it. When we run out of paper because we don’t have the money to buy more, we feel it. When our sports teams can’t compete, we feel it. I know that there’s some people who think
what the budget is going through, is it really necessary. Let me tell you that if it wasn’t for sports and music and all the different things the high school offers, all the different things the whole school system offers, I would not be the same person that I am today. These are important things in the schools system; they are things that are really needed. I know also that many people criticize the teachers. As a student, this is hard for me to say, I can tell you that I have met some of the most amazing teachers at Avon High School. This would not be possible if it were not for the things that attract teachers to the Avon High School. If it wasn’t for that we wouldn’t have teachers who are Ivy League graduates who are coming out of the work field at the top of their jobs in order to work in the school system. These are all things that are extremely beneficial as a student and they are things that only happen because we
are supporting the teachers. I know that a lot of people work better with numbers; there’s two numbers I want to talk about – first of all you may notice there are a lot of high-schoolers in the audience – can you stand up? They are here tonight because this matters. There are 220 seniors at the high school; by April 12th at least 50% of those will be 18. We’re pushing to get people out to vote. Recently the National Economic Policy Council which is run by the Federal Government, said that for every dollar put into public education, it pays off $17.00 to the Town. This is a Federal number that has come out - $1.00 put into public education. $17.00 in return.
Mr. Harrison: On that registration and the turn-out, I think that is great. Last year, the 1st Referendum we had about a 35% turn out which is the highest we had up to that point. I’d like to see it approach the turnout we that we have in election years for the President. 97/98%. It’s great if you fellows and girls register and go down to vote, it’s terrific.
Shirley Moy, 7 Rexinger Lane: Thanks for letting me talk; it’s way past my bed time and I’m tired. I’ve lived in Town for almost 11 years. We did not live in Avon all the years of my kids schooling. We used to live in a Town that did not put emphasis on education. She got a great education, but she didn’t enjoy it as much as she does since we’ve lived here. They had one principal, no guidance counselor, one secretary, classes of 25 to 28 and she was stressed to a point where my husband and I were very concerned about her. My husband is a psychologist and he’s been practicing for over 20 years so he knew that the stress was real. I agree with Carolyn Ostafin when she says the kids do face a lot of stress now, it’s real. It’s gotten to the point of being harmful to them. I’ve heard a lot of things about budget cuts to education because they come into school and they see everyone having fun. The teachers are enjoying themselves too much. The secretaries are having too much
laughter. I think you’re missing the point here. Kids are spending more than half their waking hours in school. We are the adults that deal with that, that they can relate to, that they can talk to and share their problems, share their joys, share some of their disappointments with. When you say that we have too much time on our hands, and you want to cut teachers, that’s going to add stress to the teachers which in turn will add more stress to the kids. I would think that you would want these kids to have adults that they could talk to. Not just their parents but positive influences. We had a moment of silence for a woman I’ve never met; but I read the obituary, I read the article on her; she lived a rich and full life. Don’t we want the same thing for these kids whether they play sports, they’re in the music program, don’t we want to see the same opportunity for these kids that they can one day
have a story to tell about their lives and that it begins here, it begins with us by saying yes, we want that by voting for 7.76% increase for education.
Karen Metersky, 10 Paper Chase Trail: I just have a short comment. I just want to say to the Board up there, that a Town without vision has no future. Our children are our future. Your charge is to keep our children’s education the most important thing when you make this budget decision. As our children grow they’re going to remember Avon and they bring so much to the Town. Please support our teachers, please support the budget as it stands.
Laura Corning, Nod Road: Originally I wanted to speak a lot more on behalf of the education budget increase, but a lot of that’s already been covered. I just want to say that I moved here a year and a half ago, Avon’s school system was the best in the area. As everybody knows, that’s one of our most important assets, but it’s so easy to let our competitive advantage slip away with insufficient funding. I know many Avon voters do not have kids in school, so they don’t really want to spend their hard money on education. They may not understand that if education suffers we’re going to be paying out of our own pockets. The young families won’t want to move here any more. Wealthy families will send their kids to private
schools. Kids will leave the school system and average test scores will decrease. With an alter demographic, even less likely to spend money on education we’re going create a down spiral in school quality that will ultimate lead to lower property values which I’m sure nobody wants. I know it’s very difficult to please everybody, but I’m sure you have a vision for Avon’s future that includes an outstanding public education system. I would like you to just give the tax payers a chance to vote on this budget. I want to speak out on behalf of the Avon Parents as Teachers program which is a line item in the Board of Education’s budget. This is really directed at the Board of Ed and the tax payers in the room that don’t know about that. This program is an award winning program that educates pre-school students from birth to 5 and their parents in different development areas and identifies kids with
developmental delays. Since its inception just 7 months ago, it’s educated more than 100 kids and parents and has already identified at least 10 kids with developmental delays and 10 more kids that are at risk for developmental delays. That’s over 10% of the kids in the program. How much is it worth to help even one child with autism, or hearing loss or language or speech problems during these crucial early years when intervention is most effective and the least costly. How much would it cost the school system if these kids entered kindergarten and the school system with any intervention. You’re talking about occupational therapists, speech pathologists, and all these other people; it’s a lot more expensive to deal with these kids later more than sooner. I don’t believe any program outside the curriculum provide such an advantage. So I just want to say don’t be penny wise and pound foolish and accept the
budget, support the budget and support Avon parents and teachers.
Mike Rubino, 17 Hammersmith: I would also like to comment in support of the Board of Ed’s budget in its entirety. For the last six months I’ve had the opportunity to observe what the Board has done and I have to say these folks are doing ……. When they looked at the budget, it wasn’t a dart board type analysis. They went line by line, there was a lot of discussion and they really did a lot of work to get to the point they had to get to. We should support that. We are victims of our whole success because the Board of Ed has done their job to make the schools excellent, which has attracted more people to our Town, as been said about five times already tonight. We do not want to be mediocre, we do not want to fall through mediocrity, I’m sure
We are voting for excellence, and that’s their job, and they’ve done it. We could be mediocre like some other towns in the area, but our students, our pupils, our kids won’t do as well. So please keep it in tact and do what the Board of Ed has asked. Thank you.
Kevin Freund, 55 Brookmoor Road: My family relocated to Avon five years ago when I joined Stanley, I work in New Britain. My wife and I have three children ages 7, 6 and 4. Two are current at Roaring Brook School. We are active supportive supporters of Avon Public School System. We attend fund raisers, my wife’s a room mother, she volunteers at the Library. Over the last three years I’ve had the honor to work with my children’s teachers, Mr. Schenck, Ms.-----_______, Ms________, Ms__________. Without exception, I believe they are fully capable as are all of our teachers, I also believe they are loving, caring individuals, with a passion for their choice of profession. I look forward to a long line of future teachers through the years as my
children progress through the Avon Public School system. This being said, over recent years I’ve tried to educate myself on the details surround the proposed Town budget for the next fiscal year. The bottom line, I’m concerned by the magnitude of the proposed low tax burden of my fellow residents and I ask your support in order to maintain the on-growing growth of the school system. I understand here tonight the average increase on Avon residents will be 10%, significantly greater for homes that are older. I do understand inflationary pressures as well as the underlying growth of the Town and the associated increases for services that demands. I fully expect the support, if appropriate annual increases in taxes, but the numbers being presented here aren’t that_______. My primary concern lies in accumulative tax burden that we’ll be asked to bear over the next years. Not just this year, but five years, 10 years,
20 years; every year we establish a new base line on how much we can increase our taxes. From my perspective every incremental dollar I spend in taxes this year takes away a dollar I can save for college, down the road. In all the literature I’ve reviewed, I’ve not come across a document that outlines any type of long-term budget projections. Can we assume the budget passes this year, as presented; let’s move beyond it. Can some tell me, from the committee, what kind of increase the year after. What about the year after that. With such a large increase this year, can I assume the teacher increases ------------,is that reasonable? What happens when we need a high school extension? Are we then going dip into the savings fund? Is there another double digit anticipated increase in taxes? I’d like to know that. I’d like to see a long term projection, at least five years, of
what anticipated taxes are going to be, using good faith assumptions about the future. In summary, I love this Town, I love the public school system, I truly want to support the budget. My family will personally benefit from any increase in the public school system. Nevertheless, I’m not yet decided how I will vote.
Mr. Harrison: Thank You. I don’t believe we have that. Phil, what’s our planning cycle, do we have anything such as this gentlemen has described?
Mr. Schenck: We have the Capital Improvement Plan that goes out 10 years, but we don’t have an operating budget projected from year to year. You can extrapolate on the average from prior years.
Mr. Harrison: That may not be the answer you’re looking for.
Mr. Freund: Is a final proposal something that should be looked into? Putting together reasonable assumption, plus a base line assumptions, what’s a best case/worse case? I think it’s a reasonable question to ask. My taxes are being increased …….
Mr. Harrison: I think it’s a excellent question; I think all three Boards would really have to work together to do that, because the Board of Education is obviously in a better position to do some projecting for rates requirements, the Council for it’s ….. I think it’s something we can certainly look into, but we can’t solve it between now and the date of the Referendum. But Thank You, it’s an excellent point.
Adam Lazinsk, Deepwood Drive: I should also point out I’m a town employee. My wife and I moved here several years ago, before we had children. One of the reasons we did so was we wanted to have children, we wanted to provide them with a good public education. So, as a practical and fatalistic person I’m going to suck up to the idea that my taxes are gong to have to go up to support the education budget. Where the rubber meets the road if the increases in taxes become a burden to me and my family, I make a good living but the taxes go up every so it’s a struggle, but I accept the fact that I’m going to have to struggle through that to support the budget so that my children get a good education. I want to thank the Board of Education and the Board of
Finance for the voluntary efforts that go into this every year; this is probably the third year that I’ve attended these meetings and it becomes evident the amount of hard work and effort they put into figuring out what the budget’s going to be. We should also be aware of the amount of effort that Mr. Schenck and his department heads and Dr. Kisiel and his principals and other administrators put into their efforts. In the years that I’ve been attending these meetings, what I’ve observed is that the Town operating budget comes in along the guidelines set by the Board of Finance and they do that by being very fiscally conscious and aware and they trim as much as they can. Every year I see the Board of Ed come in with their proposed budget above what the Board of Finance asks them to propose. I don’t know what the answer is, the Board of Education needs all the dollars it can and I would probably support the budget as it’s
proposed. On the other hand, the Town Operating budget gets pared down year after year and they’re operating very lean. Believe me, I know it, I see it in my department and I see it in other departments – it’s very lean. So people have to realize that there have to be decisions made town wise and at the Board of Finance level and the Board of Ed level. Maybe we all have to be prepared to accept higher taxes. As far as sports go I was a band geek, I did not play sports. However, I like sports and I’ve seen the Avon Hockey Team play. They are very good – they give it a very hard effort. The last hockey game I attended, I had the opportunity to talk to Jeff Sunblade who is the Director of Sports at the High School and he explained to me that the sports budget is 2% of the total Board of Ed budget. 2% seems reasonable to me. I don’t know but I also understand that may be the first place you’re going to cut. I don’t understand the whole sports as a metaphore for life thing,
I’ve never gotten that. I learned my team work in the band , with the student council, on the year book – I learned it in college with the ROTC, I learned team work in the service – there are other ways to learn the team work aspect. I don’t have any questions and I don’t have any answers and I know you probably don’t either. As a tax payer who lives in one of those older homes and who’s facing a huge revaluation increase in his taxes, I don’t know how I’m going to make it month to month. My escrow keeps going up because I don’t have enough taxes in escrow to pay my bill. There’s got to be a solution but I don’t know what it is. I’m just venting, here.
Sam Levine, 98 Cotswold Way: One thing I haven’t really heard tonight along with all the speakers is basically what the common issue is and the reason why we are all at this stage every year – it’s growth, the unbridled growth. Do you recognize that? So we have this issue that we have to address every year – the bottom line is that unless this Town does something to curb this unbridled growth, we will be at this place every year. There’s your problem, sir. I have not really seen any major planning and zoning changes within the community to address this issue. I know there are communities that have stopped building on highly graded areas due to erosion and have come up with legitimate environment concerns as to why you cannot build on steep slopes. I
know we’ve had some houses built in Avon where the slope is so steep and the grade is so tough that the silt ran down the hill and was a huge environmental issue for the neighbors. Had this been nipped in the bud, had this Town addressed the possibility that such close houses on such steep grades are an issue. We may be able to … that’s one aspect of the way we may be able to curb this community’s growth. And until we curb this growth, we will be back here every year. My second point is that I can’t express to you how I feel like my words fall on deaf years among the Board of Finance. I would like to know, personally, what you think, where you think the money for the Board of Education can come from for the 7.76% increase to your recommended or your proposed 5.5. Where would you personally, not like what would you recommend, not as members of the Board of Finance, as a citizen, where would you make those
cuts.
Mr. Harrison: I can only speak for myself, I would defer to the Board of Education which under State law has complete discretion on how it spends whatever amount of money you, the tax payers, approve for it.
Ms. Levine: Okay, so you defer to them, so I ask you right now to defer to them. I think that you think there’s a cash cow going on with the Board of Ed. There’s a stacked budget, there’s money stacked away, there’s secretaries sitting there eating bon bons, teachers lighting up in the back of the school – the reason I feel this way is because last when you went back and you made the budget cuts – how much of that budget cut was pinned precisely on the Board of Education budget. (Mr. Harrison: I don’t remember, Sam, but ) Somebody out there? (100%) No, you’re incorrect – it was 71%.) Mr. Harrison: Let me just make one point, many of you may
Ms. Levine: Please don’t take this off my time. Mr. Harrison: I’m not going to take this off your time. Remember something here, 68% of your tax dollars go to education related expenses, that’s with Debt Service – 68% of your tax dollars. I don’t know what the proper percentage is, is it 70%? Is it 65%? That’s one of the things we have wrestle with. Some of you in this room would like to see it go up to 75% or 80%. When you talk about reductions in past years, we are confronted with the reality that 68% of our tax dollars were spent on education. (Ms. Levine: What about like kinds of communities, what about Simsbury, what about West Hartford? Where are they?) Mr. Harrison: I can’t tell you right now. (Ms. Levine: You need to look at all these statistics, relative to where we are in Connecticut. Those are really relative facts. We pay our teachers well, but compared to everybody else, we’re doing really well. We’re doing everything really well within this community.
I thing the Board of Education spends so much time, Dr. Kisiel, the principals, everybody – they are not handing you a budget that is ready to get slashed. My kids classes are going to get bigger, schools have been cut, and it is totally palpable within the schools and I don’t think that you guys here, I don’t think you hear the thousand signatures. I hope you do, but I really don’t know how much you care and how much it’s going to affect our community. Lastly, I’d like to thank the Volunteer Fire Department for all their efforts and I’d like to thank the Police Department for all that they do in the Community. And until growth is stemmed, you are going to have all the services be affected like the police and like the fire service, so I advise you to contact the Town Council members to discuss and urge them to start moving on proposals for curbing the growth. Thank you all for your time.
Anne O’Brien, 62 Stony Corners Circle. I’ll be very brief. I’ve lived here over 12 years and have been very involved in watching the budget process each year, I’ve been very involved in Referendums through the years. My heart goes out to every one of you sitting there before us tonight on the Board of Finance, Board of Education and the Town Council and the number of hours they put into keeping this town at the level of quality it is. The number of hours is just endless and I’m not sure that everyone appreciates that. What I want to say is that for the people who may think that you don’t care about education or you don’t care about town services, I just want to say for the record that my personal knowledge is that nothing can be farther from
the truth. The people who volunteer for this town in the way that you do care more than anybody. What they have on their shoulders is a constant awareness that we can have something akin to a pep rally at a hearing and come away feeling – wow, re really told them what we thing. And we spoke loud and clear. But my experience in the town is that people loudly vote yes, but many people also vote very quietly vote No. And they’re not comfortable speaking on a forum like this, nor would I be if I didn’t support the budget, which I absolutely do, 150%. I want to say to you is that as I traveled around town this past year, I have noticed a new level of interest on the part of the citizens for getting accurate information, and why tax cuts have to be instituted. There really was a wake up call when that last referendum was voted down. Over the years, as much as I enjoy the people living in town, there’s been sort of a
level of complacency, an attitude that well, I’ve moved here and I’m paying my mortgage and everything else should just flow from that. I think people in this town are now really waking up to the fact that they have to pay attention – they have to see where the money’s spent and they have to come out and support with their votes on voting day. I feel a ground swell, and I’m around town, all the time. Whether it’s the library or sports or the grocery store or in the shopping areas, I really do sense a new ground swell of support for maintaining the level of services and increasing in the few areas that have been recommended. I just want to share that with you because I know that you’re biggest concern would be that each of you as a group would agree to accept the budget as proposed. Would that be approved on Referendum Day? That would be your biggest concern and I’m just here to tell you that the
information and the strong sense that I’m getting, more than any other year in the 12 years that I’ve been is that you will have the support to approve this budget at the 7.76 level. I urge you to vote for it.
Bill Heubner, 111 Moravia Road: I’m glad the Chairman can quote General Douglas MacArther because I served under him as a rifleman for 3 years in the South Pacific and 2 years as a rifleman in Korea. Another great statement, Benjamin Desraili, concerning Boards of Finance or Financial Governors, I just want to tell you people on the Board of Finance of Avon that you are like a fine tuned watch; you are the balance wheel of this town to prevent a runaway tax rate. Thank You.
Joanne Beers, 48 Brookridge Drive: I’ve lived in Avon since 1979 and I’ve had somewhat of a unique position. My husband and I are both retire and we have a 5th grader. I want don’t want to see my taxes go up any more than anybody else sitting in this room, but my job is to make sure that my daughter is raised as fast as she possibly can – that includes getting the best education. I tell her every day - you’re job is to go to school and get a decent education, my job is to give her that opportunity. I encourage you to support the Board of Education’s proposed budget and also the Town’s proposed budget. Thank You.
Cindy Martenz, 52 Kingsbridge: We’ve lived in Avon about 16 years. I do not have a
degree in Finance, so I’m going to speak from the heart. When we moved here from New York City 16 years ago, I have to tell you gentlemen, I did not think that 15 years later I would be standing here at a meeting where the volunteer fire department has to beg for updated equipment, the parents want new library books after 3 years in the library, sports programs have been cut, the police department is fudging because they can’t have another patrolman, they can’t afford it. Sam beat me to the punch. Yes, we absolutely have grown – oh my gosh, we can’t even drive our cars in the road any more in this Town after what’s happened in the last five years. But as my friend, Linda Merlin said to me, three months ago when we started this whole campaign of the
petitions, Cindy who’s going to pay for the growth. Somebody has to pay for it. We’ve grown, what are we going to do? In coming to the meetings since January, I see that there are a lot of things that we can look into, things I never knew about before and as soon as this budget is over, I intend to look into some of those things, as I’m sure a lot of people here will. In a good way people who are on a fixed income, I’ve served on many committees in the last 15 years, seven years on Avon Day, I’ve been on the Library Committee, I know Phil Schenck personally. What
you have given us in this town is beautiful. This has been the happiest 15 years I’ve spent as a married woman with children in a school system. Please, please, let’s not make the town divided with somebody wants swimming, somebody wants a new police vehicle, somebody wants a sanding truck. Can we somehow, you folks with the finance background, please figure it out to make it affordable for all of us and make us happy. I think enough comments have been said tonight that there are a lot of smart people in this room who can figure it out. Please, somehow figure it out because we all love this town. My words are wasted now no deaf ears, everybody who’s here loves and cares about this town. That’s what I want to say. Please, please, I can’t
even tell you how many years I’ve heard them ask for the sanding truck. Come on guys! 15 year old equipment? That’s not safe for our volunteers. Someone has to pay for it. Please dig into your pockets and support the budget.
Mr. Harrison: We haven’t been able to figure this out. There’s been a problem because the last two years, as you all know, the budget that we recommended, that we thought after considerable exercises and struggling, we thought were fair amounts, and the voters did not agree with us. So, we’re still looking for that magic formula. I don’t know if we’ll ever get a budget that will make everybody happy, but maybe we can get one that will make fewer people unhappy, but we’re going to try. The best I can give you is we’ll try our best.
Robert ________, Oak Ridge Road: The whole sports for life thing, I understand that and what it actually is, it teaches you how to lose. You go out and play sports and do your best, it’s when you lose and you get up the next day and try again, that you learn character because it’s all in losing that tests men’s pride. Having said that, our decision to settle in Avon was fairly easy. I charged my realtor with a specific task. Give me the stats on education! I believe in public education; I wanted to live in a place where my kids go to school and having a good school. Having said that, I do support the schools. Please, if you ask for more taxes, I’ll happily pay. What I don’t like is what I’m seeing at this meeting –
you listen to people talking and what is happening is you are creating a wedge between two generations. My generation which has the kids at heart and then folks who are also part of this town who are older, on fixed incomes, who live in older homes – you’re asking me, as a parent, to do what’s right for my kids education and what I know is right for the elderly who also have rights. I’m not sure I want to live in a town where the elderly and folks who are not well off are being chased out, pushed out. Quite frankly when I go to Wall Mart the person I want to do business with is a person who’s been an Avon resident for 15 years, not somebody who’s coming in from I don’t know where and doesn’t belong in my community. I think you must be sensitive to the issue that’s being created. How do you address this year a budget that is essentially a lightening rod because you’re giving these
people a double whammy. How do you relieve them of this double whammy? I would like you to consider using the undesignated fund to balance this – Please support the budgets any way you can.
Robin Schwartz, Harris Road: I’ll be very brief. I think Mr. Harrison, I would urge you go along with current comments and make the process very short and present to a referendum both budgets to the Town. I live in one of those old, albeit not historic, just old houses in Avon. I certainly did get a large change in what the value was on the house but I’m willing to pay the taxes in Avon and I hope the Board will give the town a chance to vote on a referendum that is the budget as presented.
Brian Smith, 41 North Farms Road: I’m speaking as a citizen and as a tax payer and probably as a parent. In these tough budgetary times there does seem to be created a generational conflict between those of us that are parents and want to speak up for our kids and those living on fixed incomes that obviously will be painfully affected by the increases proposed. I still want to speak out for a party that’s not either a parent or a non-parent home owner tax payer and that’s for the kids. I don’t know that anyone really is thinking of the kids, that’s what ultimately most of these decisions will come down to – how do these decisions affect the kids. Mr. Santos asked earlier why me, and I would answer him that I’m going to speak up for the
kids because as you said, Mr. Harrison, they don’t really have a vote, those that are still here, they don’t have a voice here because they are not registered voters and they’re not home owners. Ironically, they’re the ones that are most affected by the decisions that will be rendered by your Board. Decisions that once you make them you want to pass on again to the school board. I want to speak up for the kids because Mr. Santos is right, so much of the budget is fixed, whether it’s salaries, or benefits or it’s commitment to the special needs kids. Those are all fixed items. If you look at the budget there’s only a very small portion of the budget that is really discretionary but that mostly affects the kids in the quality of life that they may enjoy from the school. Yes, extra curricular activities were the extras, the extra teacher for Pine Grove, the extra teacher for Roaring Brook or Thompson Brook,
or the extra math teacher for the High School that are really making the environment for learning as conducive as possible for an optimal experience. Who can speak up for the kids? As parents we really are obligated to, but I want everyone in the room to remember the impact on the kids. Just to push the hockey of life metaphor, America’s most famous hockey player lives in Winthrop, MA, Mike Ruzioni, he still lives there. His son played on a hockey team this year at Winthrop High. Next year his son will not be able to play on that hockey team because the town has decided there is no hockey team. The town’s also decided there are no sports teams at Winthrop High School. In fact, the town has decided there’s no public library in Winthrop any more. It will not be supported by the Town. When I moved from Milton, MA 12 years ago with my family to live in Avon because I wanted my kids growing up being able to have an
excellent school system and have opportunities that perhaps if we lived in Winthrop they wouldn’t be having. I urge you, as a finance board to let the town vote on the budgets as presented. I urge you to support and allow us to show our support for the school budget which is obviously the biggest component of the budget, but we want to support our kids, I want to support my kids in school and I think there is a majority of the town that will support that budget at referendum. Thank You.
Mr. Harrison: Can I ask you a question? This is not a critique, I mentioned earlier that 68% of the tax dollars go to education; do you think there is a percentage beyond which it should not go or should it always be increased … Do you have any suggestions for us as we wrestle with this?
Mr. Smith: I don’t know what the number is. I know that kids don’t have a voice it and need to be supported. There is a lot of ways that revenue can be enhanced; we talked of growth before, I think new building in town really needs to be looked at. I understand from other Towns that you can generate more revenues by assessing the builders fees so that you can help support the increased students that new homes will generate that come into the school system. I’m not a financial person; I know there are very bright people on your Finance committee and that you could come up, maybe in conjunction with the town planning and zoning committee with more creative ways to increase the revenue side beyond just passing it on to the tax payers. I think we have to
foremost keep in mind what’s in the best interest of the kids and whether the number is 68% or 70%, we’ve made a commitment to live in this town because of the opportunities for our kids and I still want to support my children who…
Mr. Harrison: Since I’m in a quoting mood tonight, there’s another famous member of congress who, anyway, his philosophy on taxing was when the governmental bodies that were responsible for coming up with the taxes, he said let’s do it this way – don’t tax you, don’t tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree. Everyone says tax the other fellow. This is what we have to wrestle with and we’ll do the best we can.
Chris Kaswer, 35 Hemlock Lane: One thing that I understand from seeing all the numbers for the Board of Education’s proposed budget, there is only about $400,000 or so that is money that they have asked for things that are being put back in. If you reduce that down to bare minimum, you’ve still got quite a budget and I don’t know how you are actually able to go forward with anything much less that the 7.76%. One thing I’d like to be able, a few people have talked about using the rainy day fund, the undesignated surplus, and look at that as trying to use that money toward the four or five hundred thousand dollars in the school budget and reduce that a little bit, pay for the fire fighting equipment they need, maybe take half of it, you said it’s approximately 3.8
million, take half of it and use that to alleviate what the tax rate would be for the next year. I think that would be a really good thing to do. I think it’s about time you dipped into that fund. As far as the Board of Education’s numbers, I know I’ve been to a few of their meetings and I know they have done their home work, they spent a lot of time. I think all the presentations tonight were very well prepared; I think there’s a lot of really good information for all of us see and I support all the budgets. I also want to thank the students and coach for coming here. He isn’t an Avon resident and he’s here to support that. I’d like to see the athletics get back into the budget. Thank You.
Bill Stokesbury, 15 Cadbury Turn: I just want to stress one point. I’m in favor of the budget as proposed. The question about what percentage of the budget should go to education is an unfair question because of the lack of in-state aid or middle-state aid coming through the town and the increasing number of unfounded State mandates or Federal mandates that the Town has to comply with, and therefore, it would require the budget to increase beyond and percentage stated. It’s a macro economic issue; we have to realize it’s what the Feds are doing to you.
Bud Desmond, Haynes Road. We moved in there in 1968 and I’ve been a registered voter ever since them. When we moved in in 1968, the request in the Board of Education budget was that we purchase a new wrestling mat for a very fine wrestling team and that we introduce far eastern languages. Those were minor compared to what the Board has wrestled with this year. As the last gentleman said, there‘s a very small part that they can work on this year and they’ve already had to make some wrenching decision and possibly they’ll have to make more. All three of my children went through the schools, K thru 12, and we were thrilled with the result. I will always support education; I served on the High School Renovations Committee. I also want to raise a concern
because I see us years in the future; I support this year’s budget. One thing that hasn’t been mentioned tonight was the negotiations for the teacher’s contract is coming up very soon. This is a competitive world; if you look around at industry and the service industry, people are still losing their jobs, even right here in Avon. People are losing their benefits and I’m one of them, or a large part of them from the largest service company that we have been promised services all through our lives. That’s the competitive growth and I hope the negotiating committee thinks of this when they go in. I’ve heard various opinions on competitive salaries and I would like to see what the starting salary is because I’ve heard various stories and I would like to know. In this morning’s paper they are talking about Canton and said the starting salary there was $39,120. I’d like to know if the Board of
Education agrees with that number. I do believe competitive data helps the voter decide just where things go. I would like to advise that I’m not the only one in my age category who supports education and just because people ask questions doesn’t mean that they are against education. It just means we need to be sure that we’re doing it in the most effective way possible.
Peg Roell, Chair of the Board of Education: The starting salary for a teacher with a Bachelor’s degree and no experience is $40,685.
John ---------------------__________: I’ve lived in town for a year and a half. You mentioned a portion of the increase is due to pre-negotiated fixed rates; presumably those are multi year engagements? When they talked about the increased, you said that we’re only asking, the school portion is only a small portion but the majority of the increase is due to fixed costs. Are those multi-year contracts? (Ms. Roell: It’s a three-year for the teachers.) Is there any way to know future projections of what we can expect future increases to be? Is it always going to be a 3-year contract? Is that why we can’t give a 3-year projection of the fix rate increases. If we asked that 3 years ago, you could have responded? (Yes.) What other multi-year contracts are we obligated for? (Union contracts, administrators, building maintenance, nurses, secretaries and the Town workers also) I heard more emotion than fact on what people think about what’s going to happen. Are there any
multi-year approaches to reduce our costs as opposed to salaries – what are we looking for to curb the costs. There doesn’t seem to be any program like that. So when I go to the polls and vote I can know that they have met that criteria, the have supported that type of year after year approach to reducing costs.
Mr. Harrison: Obviously, you’re not looking for Board of Education for example to outline their negotiation strategy, you’re not looking for that tonight, are you? That’s not going to happen. I think all the bargaining units that deal with the Town on the town side, police, not just teachers, I think the officials and the committees that do the negotiations go into it with the idea of getting the best that realistically possible. The threat we have, as Dick Hines mentioned during his presentation, is State law in Connecticut says if you can’t come to agreement, it goes to binding arbitration and the arbitration process is stacked against the towns, particularly a town like Avon. The reaction is oh well, it’s a wealthy town, they can afford to give much
higher. We do the best we can. I think everybody goes into those negotiations from that perspective, lets get the best job for the tax payers that we can. I don’t know that tonight anybody can tell you that specifically we’re going to have this percentage, or why kid tax, or co-pays. (A lot of people here think we’re not being as competitive and we might not have the ability to do that.) It’s a little bit like the widget makers union dealing with company x because they don’t have that mandatory binding arbitration. That ties our hands.
Karen Cianci, Volovski Road: I’ve been a resident for about 10 years and I’m not quite sure I understand why it’s so important to get a budget passed the first time. One of the reasons you’re searching for the budget to pass the first time is to stop the discontent over the tension that’s between the taxpayers. I’m not sure I understand the cause and effect of seeing a budget failing and any tension between the taxpayers. Giving the fact that might be an issue, because I trust you have been there and knows the issues. Why not consider dipping into the undesignated fund to the extent between the 5% and the 7% to make everybody happy if nothing else than to stop the tension this year, to stop the momentum that makes this line between the taxpayers.
Mr. Harrison: First of all, we’d like to make everyone happy but that may not happen. When you prolong the budget process, it just gives people even more time to work themselves up emotionally; it’s too high – it’s too low – you’re against children – you’re against seniors. Unfortunately those are the kinds of raw emotions that ten to (Ms. Cianci) What if the 6% will get you there in between the 7.7% versus what you might think is the bulls eye at 5. whatever. Go somewhere in 6% and see if that makes people happy by dipping into the undesignated fund.)
We look at all the options that are on the table, we listen, most of you don’t believe that, but we do listen.
Ms. Cianci: Second question just so we’ll know, if we were to go from here in terms of getting voters out to the poles in support of the Board of Ed, can you tell me what percentage of the tax payers in Avon have children in the school system? (It’s about a third.) In order to get people out who have children in school, it sounds like it’s a losing battle if we don’t get as many people as possible who have children in school to the poles.
Mr. Harrison: I don’t want to get into an education political debate, but I don’t think it’s safe to assume that 100% of the families who have children in the schools will automatically vote in favor of the budget because that doesn’t happen. We know last year at the first referendum everybody thought it was going to pass because everybody on the education side was supporting it, all the Boards were. You may not have read the story that Stephanie wrote, but the voting machines can take a certain number of votes then the counter stops. By about 5:00 in the afternoon, there were three machines approaching the maximum number of votes, so we replaced
them, we always have extra machines there. So there were three machines that were open only from about 5:00 on. The people working at the poles, the people you sign in with, commented afterwards about maybe a little bit over half of the people who voted in the last three hours, we could tell because of those last three machines, they were people of the age who would have children in the schools, a lot of them brought the kids with them, and the vote count on those three machines, I think on two, the vote was against the budget and the third was narrowly in favor of it. Given the fact that most of those voters appeared to be children in the schools, they did not support that initially proposed budget. I don’t think it’s a safe assumption that everybody that has children in the schools
come out and vote yes. (Ms, Cianci: Does the Town keep track of the people who come out and vote? ) We publicize, we have the Town Council put that in the Newsletter, Stephanie Reitz puts articles in the paper, we publicize it on the web sites, within the school system PTOs provide information on the date and time and so forth. We can’t drag people out to the poles, but we give more than enough notice. Caroline LaMonica keeps her office open on the Saturday before so people can get absentee ballots if they are going to be out of town. We do everything we can to promote it, it doesn’t get the coverage the races for President and Governor get but we do try to promote it as best we can. The numbers keep going up each year.
Joanne Campbell: I’m not speaking about the fire department right now, I just want to make a comment and since Bud touched on the division between different groups in town. I attend the tax payer meetings and I’m looking at information. I notice a lot of comments tonight about the surplus fund and you know we got figures at that meeting that says there are 8.1 million dollars in surplus. When people are talking about using that money I think that’s why people think if there’s 8.1 million in surplus and teachers’ salaries are above every other town and that per capita taxes are out of range with everybody else. This is where this type of discontent comes from. I don’t know what the answer is, I don’t know what the correct information is,
but that’s the information that’s out there and that’s the information that people are getting. And that’ one of the reasons we are having this problem.
Mr. Harrison: There are designated fund balances; for instance in the sewer account we’re putting money in that as a sort of reserve because in a couple of years Simsbury which is one of the places to which Avon sewage flows, is going to have to undertake a major plant expansion and we’re going to have to pay a percentage of that and it’s going to be a pretty big hit. We’re putting some money aside each year so that we won’t have to make a massive hit in the year the plant gets built and the bill comes to us. There are other funds that are designated for specific uses. The undesignated fund is that figure we mentioned about 3.8 million. The 8 million figure is just not available to be used.
Bob Paine: I don’t know how many young people are and were here earlier, actually I did attend the Board meetings and heard their deliberations. The last meeting was only attended by about 35 people. I want to give you some feed back because I was the only one at the last one because of the snow storm. I spoke up and reminded people of what was coming with regard to the revaluations. That would impact on taxes without any budget change. Believe it or not, I had maybe 15 people out of that group call me later and tell me later that young people with children in the school system, that they would be willing to pay more. They would be willing to be assessed special things for more and some people actually spoke up that night of the snow storm; parents with children
– well, why don’t we charge a fee for all these sports programs rather than cut them out, why don’t we ask for students who park their cars at the high school to pay a couple hundred dollar fee. All the other towns around here do the same thing. This was never brought up to us, it had apparently been rejected already, I don’t know who opposed those things. The other issue was the week before that snow storm meeting there was a meeting at the Board of Ed administrative meeting at Towpath, Dave Shopis asked the Superintendent of
Schools to come up with some budget recommendations. There were three steps to the recommendations; these were for deliberation. One was the budget that we see today from the Board, another one was cutting it down a little over 6% and the last one was pared way down to the benchmark that the Finance had put out. I don’t know how many people in the Town ever heard these three variations, but I’ve never heard them since and they obviously were not present the next week during the snow storm. The third rung down had to do with cutting staff and someone from the audience had the timidity to say ‘would this affect the academic results for our students in the school’ and I thought I heard the Superintendent say - absolutely not.
9. Chairman Harrison advised the audience that, there being no further discussion, the Budget, in its final format, will be presented to the Annual Budget Meeting on Monday, May 3, 2004, at the Avon Senior Center, 7:30 p.m. and will be submitted to vote at Referendum on May 12, 2004, at the Avon Senior Center Community Room, 635 West Avon Road, Avon, CT between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.
The Chairman thanked the citizens for attending and advised that the Board of Finance will be holding workshops on April 7, 13 and 15 at 7:00 p.m. in the Avon Room, Town Hall, to consider your comments and concerns. As there was no further business to be discussed, he declared the meeting adjourned at 9:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Thomas A. Gugliotti, Secretary
Attest: Elinor Burns, Clerk
| |
