South Windsor Council Passes $102.93 Million Budget

After 4.5 hours of wrangling over figures and tax rates, the South Windsor Town Council on Monday evening unanimously passed a $102.93 million budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year.

The spending plan includes $34.81 million for the town operating budget, with the Town Council already having passed the school district’s $68.1 million budget in April.

The vote on the mill rate, which was set at 34.9 mills, was not nearly as harmonious, with it passing 5-4 (more on that later).

How the council agreed to the budget was unorthodox to say the least.
Indeed, despite the Republicans having a 6 to 3 majority on the Town Council, Republican Mayor Tom Delnicki took the unusual step of reaching out to Democrat Keith Yagaloff, the minority party leader on the council, to come up with what Delnicki called a bipartisan budget.

This came after Delnicki announced that he was stepping down from the Republican Town Committee last week due in no small part to a proposal from fellow Republican councilors to add $412,000 to the town government budget to fund a new police position, athletic fields, parking lot improvements and an additional contribution to the employee pension account. The proposal also made adjustments to revenue projections, cutting in half the amount used from the fund balance to mitigate a tax increase from $800,000 to $400,000.

The Delnicki-Yagaloff budget did not include the $812,000 in additional expenditures and revenue projection adjustments.

“This is an elitist budget,” Yagaloff said at one point referring to the additional expenditures. “It runs counter to public opinion.”

Still, a series of amendments proposed by Republicans saw some of the expenditures inserted back into the budget, including an additional $20,000 for the police department to hire a new officer, $98,960 for capital projects, $50,000 to go to the expansion of playing fields in town.

But several amendments were struck down, including $100,000 to re-align the softball field on Ayers Road and $125,000 to be added to the town employees’ pension fund.

With the exception of the police officer (which passed 6-3), the amendments either passed or were defeated in a 5-4 vote, with Republican Cary Prague serving as the critical swing vote.

The additional expenditures are supposed to be offset by $103,000 in savings that will be realized when Town Manager Matthew Galligan goes out to lease a number of items contained within the capital projects budget.

Ultimately, the $102.93 million budget passed, with Democratic town councilors and Delnicki applauding.

“When I broke the mold and reached out to the minority leader, I thought it might blow up in my face,” Delnicki said. “But seeing the budget pass unanimously, I’m delighted.”

But the five other Republicans - Deputy Mayor Gary Bazzano and Councilors Prague, Cindy Beaulieu, Kevin McCann and Jan Snyder - had more muted reactions.

“I only wished you reached out to our side first … or at all,” McCann said.

The matter of what to set the tax rate was more challenging, as the Republicans were successful in having just $400,000 - not $800,000 - of the fund balance used to offset a tax increase.

The difference was that the mill rate was set at 34.9 mills instead of 34.85 mills.

Over Yagaloff’s vigorous objection, the measure passed 5-4, with Prague again serving as the swing vote.

“It’s just sticking it to the taxpayer,” Yagaloff said.

But others disagreed, with Beaulieu noting that the town’s credit rating was based on the fund balance. In the long run - particularly with an expensive school renovation project on the horizon - taxpayers will benefit from the town having a favorable credit rating, as it will be less expensive to borrow money.

Still, in the end, Delnicki said that he was thrilled with the result - a unanimous budget was passed for the first time in recent memory.