Letter: Southington Finance Board Member Explains Controversial Budget

Editor:

There have been many fact-challenged posts on the budget in Southington during the last couple of months. Now that the mill rate is set, it is a good time to summarize the facts behind why our 2023-24 budget took the form it did.

Despite having $2.9 million in extra revenue from grand list growth, the budget request received by the board of finance was for $12.9 million increased spending over this year. This was for a level services budget only (no new services or hires), because we were faced with the tsunami of cost increases which have affected every single town in the state.

The main drivers of the increase were inflation, health care, unfunded state mandates and a large state municipal employee pension request.

Eight items represented 92 percent of this spending increase request:

• Health care costs - $3.4 Million

• Wages - $3.1 Million

• Debt Service - $2.3 Million

• MERS pension increases - $1.4 Million

• Board of education transportation (extra requirements from State) - $1 Million

• BoE Spec. Ed. Outplace Tuition - $289K

• BoE Utilities - $221K

• Town Services Gas & Diesel - $194K.

The debt service increase is the only item unique to Southington.

This is due to infrastructure spending put forward to town residents on a bipartisan basis by elected officials on the BoF and town council and approved by town residents in town referendums.

Our town manager also proposed using another $2 Million from our reserves of $28.3 million for non-referendum capital items next year.

We have a strategy of keeping tax increases to the absolute minimum (negligible over last five years). But to do this with these increases would have decimated our services.

To give an example, this would require a combination of devastating events such as laying off 75 teachers and 10 police officers, as well as getting rid of leaf collection and the recycling center.

However, there is no way we could pass on a 2-mill tax increase represented by such an increase.

So we decided on a strategy of keeping services intact while looking for reductions elsewhere. Here is what we did:

• Health care decreases - $1.12M

• BoE non-lapsing revenue - $760K

• Minor services cuts - $725K

• Increase interest income on investments - $200K

• Reduction of debt service by using past savings - $200K

• Reduce tax uncollectable percent from 1.8 to 1.7 - $139K

• Locked gas and diesel contracts - $83K.

The result was a spending increase of 6.3 percent and a mill rate increase of 1.23.

And that’s it. No fiscal cliff. No Republicans causing spending mayhem by not raising taxes three years ago. No massive cuts to our schools. No reckless spending.

Just the BoF using its best judgment to protect services during a critical time and using any and all means at its disposal to mitigate the cost to our taxpayers.

I would like to thank the BoE for allowing the use of their monies from this year for the next and the town council for trusting our approach.

— Tony Morrison, Republican member of Southington Board of Finance