Shanley Revises Budget Proposal; Public Sounds Off

General Manager Scott Shanley unveiled changes to his $167 million Wednesday night, which he said were brought about by uncertainty in $1.34 million in conditional state funding to the town's public schools, just as residents had the opportunity to express their opinions on Shanley's proposal in a public hearing in the auditorium of . 

"We still don't have really clear information," Shanley said of Gov. Dannel P. to municipalities that meet certain stipulated criteria. If Manchester Public Schools were to meet that criteria, it would result in an increase of $1.34 million in funding through the ECS grant, the state's largest means of support to public schools. 

"We will get $1.3 million more in revenue, but it will pass directly to the school system. It will not show in the town's budget," Shanley said Wednesday. "We believe that we need to remove $1.3 million in ECS funding that I had in my proposed budget out of the revenue stream." 

In order to remove the money but not reduce the amount of funding, which had been included in the Board of Education's funding in Shanley's initial budget proposal, he said the town had to make several adjustments, which would mildly impact the mill rate for the 2012-13 fiscal year under Shanley's proposal. $500,000 in funding for school related capital projects has been eliminated from Shanley's proposal; town pension funding has been reduced by $150,000, Board of Education pension funding by $100,000; the Board of Education's budget has been reduced by $275,000, and the town will use an additional $150,000 of its General Fund to help plug a hole in the budget, pushing the total to $400,000. 

The adjustments will increase the tax levy by $168,579, resulting in a 1.9 percent tax increase and a new mill rate of 31.60 mills; Shanley's initial proposal called for a 1.8 percent tax increase and a mill rate of 31.56 mills. A mill equals $1 of tax for each $1,000 of assessed property value. The current mill rate in town is 28.1. 

Possibly the most noticeable reduction in Shanley's budget adjustment is the elimination of $500,000 in town funding for school repairs. The Board of Education has been criticized recently for delaying needed capital repairs and allowing the town's public schools to fall into "." The $500,000 in town funding would have been "earmarked" to be spent exclusively on school repairs, and would not have been able to be transferred to other parts of the Board of Education's budget to make up for reductions in those areas. 

Shanley said the additional $1.34 million in ECS funding from the state, should it be received by the town, would now go directly to the Board of Education, to be used where they saw fit in the school system's overall budget. He said the town would have no oversight of the increased ECS funding and how it was used. 

"That's up to the school department now," Shanley said. "When it showed as town revenue, I had control of it." 

Shanley's $167,016,027 budget proposal for the 2012-13 fiscal year is a 2.2 percent increase in spending over the town's current budget, and freezes one vacant position within the town. 

After Shanley unveiled his proposed budget adjustments, residents had the chance to sound off on his proposal in a public hearing, but only four residents commented. 

Bonnie Schutze said she was concerned about even the modest tax increase called for under Shanley's budget. Schuetz also said that if the Board of Education were to receive the additional $1.34 million in state funding that she hoped it would be used to improve educational services or repair schools. 

"If they get that $1.3 (million), I just hope it goes where it's supposed to go and not go 'out there' someplace," she said. 

While resident Scott Aiken said he was pleased with the services he receives from the town for the taxes he pays, but wanted Manchester to consider establishing an independent bonding commission in town to prioritize public infrastructure projects. 

"I have a lot of questions about all of the infrastructure in town. I would like to know what is the total need of infrastructure in town," Aiken said. "What I think Manchester needs is an independent, non-political appointed bonding commission…not people appointed by the political parties in town."