Light Turnout at Town Budget Hearing

Only about 30 residents attended a public hearing on a proposed town budget for 2011-12, and of those about a third were either elected officials, town employees, candidates for office or members of the press.

At the meeting, presentations were made on the $49,134,068 spending plan, including a summary by schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Graner of the $29,607,964 requested by the Board of Education.

But the light turnout at the hearing, held at Ledyard High School, was a concern for town officials, who worry that a general lack of information could leave the proposed budget vulnerable at referendum on May 17.

Graner said the school board’s request reflects a $994,614 increase, or about 3.48 percent, over the current budget – the first increase since the 2008-09 budget, he said. But the hike would largely be offset by a $703,430 federal stimulus grant that the board received last year and chose to apply to next year’s budget.

With the stimulus grant, the actual dollar increase needed to fund the town’s schools next year is $291,184, or about a 1 percent increase.

Despite the small increase, Graner said, the budget would allow Ledyard schools to maintain its current class size, continue all curricular and extra-curricular programs and support a major scheduling change next year, including the purchase of many new textbooks.

“We think there’s an awful lot to like about this budget,” Graner said. “It maintains all of our programs and does it at a very modest cost to town taxpayers.”

Jim Diaz, chairman of the Town Council’s Finance Committee, concurred.

“In my eight years in town government, this is the best budget we’ve ever put together,” he said. The general government portion of the budget – $19,526,104 – is actually 0.14 percent lower than this year’s budget. Combined with the effective school budget increase, the proposal reflects an overall increase of less than 1 percent.

“That’s a substantial accomplishment, in my view,” Diaz said.

And there was some good news Monday from state Rep. Tom Reynolds, D-42nd. Reynolds reported that the payment in lieu of taxes program for industrial machinery and equipment, which was expected to be eliminated in Gov. Malloy's budget, would likely be continued in the next fiscal year. Ledyard had been bracing for a loss of about $365,000 had the program been scrapped. 

Council Chairman Terry Jones gave an overview of a proposed $5.4 million bond issue to extend water service to the Avery Hill Mobile Home Park and eventually to all of Aljen Heights.

“We don’t take these things lightly,” Jones said, but explained that the town has been offered help from the government in the form of financial subsidies, including low interest loans and a grant for 20 percent of the project’s cost.

“Cheap money is available for this,” he said. “If we seize the moment we can take advantage of that low-interest money.”

Jones also described a road maintenance plan that would require the town to borrow about $3 million over the next three years.

“There’s never a good time to borrow money,” Mayor Fred B. Allyn Jr. said in support of the two capital improvement projects. He noted, however, that construction costs are low right now, and so are interest rates.

“We are frugal. You are frugal,” Allyn told residents. “We don’t borrow easily. We are careful with our money.”

There will be a public hearing on May 2 for Aljen Heights residents on the water project. On May 5 there will be a hearing on the project for all residents. A town meeting on the plan will be conducted on May 9, which will adjourn to the May 17 referendum.

Of the residents who spoke Monday, several, including resident Tom Grain, commented on the poor turnout. Grain asked the Town Council to be more proactive about getting the word out, “so that people don’t just show up on referendum day and vote no,” he said.

“In a way, I suppose it’s a good sign that Ledyard voters aren't up in arms,” Jones said after the hearing. But he acknowledged, “there is some risk that people could show up at the referendum and not be informed.”