Trumbull Council Approves $151.9M Budget

[Editor's Note: The article has been amended to reflect that Trumbull Town Council Vice Chairwoman Suzanne Testani moved to add $20,000 to the BEI budget Tuesday night. Trumbull Patch regrets the omission.]

Trumbull will have a $151.9 million budget for 2013-2014 after the Town Council approved a spending package 12-7 Wednesday night.

After about 90 minutes, all the council's democrats except Fred Palmieri cast the nay votes, in addition to the nay from republican David Pia.

All the opponents disagreed with different parts of the budget.

Education

The education budget, with the 2.74 percent increase proposed by First Selectman Tim Herbst, passed unchanged 13-5 with one abstention.

Council members voting against it included democrats Vicki Tesoro, James Meisner and Martha Jankovic-Mark, and republican Tony Scinto. Democrat Gregg Basbagill abstained.

The education budget does not include funding for the district's technology upgrade plan, which will be part of a bonding package to be reviewed by the Board of Finance today at 7 p.m. in Town Hall.

The finance panel will also review two other school-related bonds, about $840,000 for school security and about $1 million for turf at Trumbull High School.

Approval of the education budget means the Board of Education will have to remove $1.862 million. The school board had asked for an increase of 4.56 percent to cover salaries, benefits and a small staff increase.

That figure might come down if and not considered part of the 2013-2014 school budget, is applied.

The bonding issues and the $875,000 were among the reasons why some council members disapproved.

"I disagree with doing things off the balance sheets,"  Meisner said, referring to holding the bonding meeting after the budget approval meeting. "It just gets down to honest accounting."

Tesoro said she does not want to vote "without really knowing what the numbers really are."

"That's a big assumption" that the bonding proposals will pass, she said. "You can't make that assumption."

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Opponents also objected to bonding for short-life items such as technology, preferring to put them into the operating budget.

Other Items

The net change of a $7,000 decrease came from numerous proposals, such as adding $20,000 to the Trumbull Business Education Initiative and removing $25,000 from the Public Works Department.

Originally proposed by Gregg Basbagill and approved by the Council's Finance Committee, the $20,000 will allow for more convenient viewing of Channel 17/99, such as with an On Demand service.

Town Council Vice Chair Suzanne Testani, who has served on the BEI for six years, made the motion Tuesday night. "I believe in its mission," she said.

The Council unanimously voted to remove $25,000 earlier added by the Board of Finance to establish a deputy Public Works Director. Herbst's recommendation to pull funding for Trumbull's relatively new Recycing Coordinator position remained.

Tesoro questioned removal of the coordinator, as had her husband, Board of Finance member Tom Tesoro.

She said the coordinator position had been described as "vital" and that the job, held by Robin Bennett, generated $8,400 a month. "[Bennett] more than pays for her salary, the Councilwoman said.

By removing the coordinator, "we're going in the wrong direction," Tesoro said. But all agreed to remove the $25,000.

Meanwhile, some Council members were concerned that the town's pension plan was not sufficiently funded.