Town Council Passes $192m Budget

The Stratford Town Council Monday passed a budget for fiscal year 2013-14 totaling $192,615,491.

Council members approved an allocation for schools of $95,517,529, a 1.6 percent increase over the current fiscal year's budget. 

The Stratford Board of Education had requested an increase of 3.18 percent, which a school official attributed to an added $900,000 to teachers' salaries and an additional $2.9 million to special education funding.

It will be up to the school board to decide what to cut due to the $1.4 million shortfall from its request, Council member Chris Barnaby (R-1) said after the vote.

"We can't interject ourselves in the Board of Education spending," he said. 

Overall, the budget increases spending less than 1 percent. The largest chunk on the town side concerns employee benefits, which, at $33.9 million, makes up about 18 percent of the entire budget.

"The cost per employee of municipal labor is far out-stripping the taxpayers' ability to pay for a level of services to which they have become accustomed, which is something we continue to address through the collective bargaining process," Mayor John A. Harkins said last month when he presented his budget proposal, which was approximately what the Council passed Monday.

He added, "Increases in structural costs such as education, employee pensions and benefits, debt service, and workers' compensation are the key drivers of the overall operating expenditures."

Last week residents had two chances to comment on the mayor's proposal. At the second of two public hearings held at Flood Middle School, Overland Drive resident James Mihaley spoke.

"The apathy is really unfortunate," said Mihaley, who called expenditures in town "out of control." He specifically mentioned a reported $145 million to cover currently unfunded pension obligations.

On Monday, Council members voted to refer the following to the town's ordinance committee:

An ordinance authorizing the issuance of not more than $220,000,000 in aggregate principal amount of town of Stratford general obligation pension bonds (federally taxable) to discharge all or portions of the town's unfunded actuarial accrued liability with respect to the retirement plan for employees of the town.

At the public hearing, Mihaley said several other states in the country have overturned contracts because of pensions. He said more than 25 percent of residents are over 65 years old and one out of 10 are out of work and that there is a "lack of motivation to help the people of this town."

Mihaley also urged Council members in attendance to maintain services at the Stratford Library and the Baldwin Center. "Thank God we have those facilities," he said.

On Monday, one last-minute modifier to the budget included money to "return a secretary at Baldwin Center to her original position," according to Council member Stephanie Philips (D-2).