Nips, tucks, shifts as town seeks ways to pay bills

CORNWALL — There are many pieces to the budget puzzle. What the Board of Finance will attempt to do at this point is get as clear a picture as possible of how the pieces will fit together as it works on a 2012-13 budget proposal. The goal, of course, is to cover expenses with revenues while assuring there are savings for planned (and unplanned) future expenses.It will not be an easy year for budgeting. The grand list is down 13.5 percent after last year’s revaluation. That’s $61 million needed to make up at the current mill rate. What finance members did not do at their regular meeting March 22 was to ask either the Board of Selectmen or Board of Education to cut anything from the bottom lines of town and school spending proposals. The Board of Selectmen is planning for a 1.65 percent increase. The Board of Education is proposing a small decrease to the Cornwall Consolidated School (CCS) budget.Add to that a $184,000 jump in the Region One School District assessment.Finance members may hold a special meeting April 4 to sort it all out and bring some focus for residents at a public hearing. Revaluation will mean changes to most tax bills, with the majority seeing an increase. The ultimate decision will be whether to raise the mill rate, and if so, by how much. It is currently at 12.5, meaning that property owners pay $12.50 for every thousand dollars in assessed value. Connecticut towns apply tax to 70 percent of the assessment. The drop in the grand list alone would drive the mill rate to 14.67. But as finance member John LaPorta noted, that is not the only way to look at it. “Some people will be paying higher taxes. There will be some offset of the decrease. This is not the time to panic and raise the red flag.”LaPorta opened a discussion of the undesignated fund balance, which is basically the town’s savings accounts and can be used to offset budget and tax increases. The town has well over a million dollars tucked away. It may sound like a lot, but statute requires that towns reserve at least two months’ worth of operating expenses, or about $1 million in Cornwall’s case.He talked about the past year, when money was on hand to pay for immediate needs in emergencies.“I love having that cushion; and looking at what we went through last year, we would have been bonding to pay for disasters. I am not generally in favor of lowering what we keep in savings.”There are “bonuses” expected or already in hand. A $423,973 reimbursement from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) for the Lower River Road bridge replacement has arrived, in what feels like record time. It covers 80 percent of the project. While it is not really “found” money, it frees up an extra $116,500 of an appropriation to cover costs that were only a rough estimate at the time.First Selectman Gordon Ridgway explained a plan to shuffle money around: using that unneeded appropriation to cover $40,000 in the line item for bridges in the capital account, return $76,000 to the General Fund and remove $40,000 from planned capital spending for next year.A refinancing of the bond on the most recent school expansion will brings a savings over coming years of as much as $175,000. About $50,000 in a loan repayment for the demolition of Rumsey Hall is expected soon. The settlement has come down to a lawsuit against a bank; the selectmen were to be in court earlier this week. Ridgway said it may mean a foreclosure on the property.Upcoming budget datesApril 5, BOF, special meeting if neededApril 19, BOF, regular meetingApril 20, Public hearingMay 17, BOF, regular meeting and final approval of proposed budgetMay 18, Town meeting, BOF meets immediately after to set a new mill rateAll meetings are at 7:30 p.m. at Cornwall Consolidated School.

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