Eastonites Eye 5 Percent Mill Rate Increase

If Easton's proposed budgets are passed, taxes are expected to increase by about five percent for the 2011-12 year, landing the mill rate at 23.5, up from 22.4 last year. On Monday night, the Easton Board of Finance and Region 9 and Easton school boards presented their budgets to the public in an open forum at .

When the floor was opened for public comment, residents' opinions on the school budgets — for Easton's budget and a for , which equates to a 3.81 percent increase ($383,355) of Easton's share of that budget — differed. (Because of where the students are coming from, Redding's share of the Barlow budget as proposed increases .94 percent.)

Anne Lesky told town officials she's upset with the direction of Easton's schools.

“We elected to pull my two children out of Easton schools,” she said. “The community needs to know what is being done so there is less speculation as to what is being done. Increase the quality of our education system, please."

Heidi Gidar offered a different point of view.

"This year I’ve been encouraged,” Gidar said. “In each one of these line items I’ve heard a story about it,” she said, praising the school board for committing time and diligence to the budget process.

Sharon Stemme said the budget was a step in the right direction.

“I have a third grader,” Stemme said. “The class [size] went from 18 to 23 [students]. It did affect her. This budget, if I had this last year, I would be doing cartwheels down the hallway. I encourage you to support that [budget] number."

Heidi Armster echoed Stemme’s statement.

“I’ve asked you to accept this budget, accepting it as it is, not cutting it any further,” she said. Armster said that it was part of the “process of taking little baby steps back to what we used to have.”

“There’s lots of parent chatter out there, lots of emails," she said. "We would like to see [the Easton Board of Education] budget go through at 2.31 percent."

Bernadette Waterman also voiced support of the budget.

“I’m in support of budget as it stands now,” she said. "It’s in our best interest as a community. [There were] two reasons why we moved here: education and how beautiful the town is. As a family, we decided: ‘look at this education, this town supports education. I feel that it is our social responsibility as a community to nurture our children and support them.”

Colin Dacey said he works in the private sector and hasn't gotten wage increases recently.

"A five percent increase is too much,” Dacey said, adding he was also “distressed to see the debt service going up rather than down.”

“Education is [getting] plenty of funding….I don’t think our outcomes are that great, I think they’re average,” he said.

Dacey’s wife, Beverly, also expressed a deep concern for the education budget.

“In 2002, the budget was $7.5 million…now it’s $15 million,” she said.

She asked for “benchmarks” that measured performance, and criticized the current annual wage increases that happens without an evaluation.

“Let’s make people accountable again, like we used to,” she said. “We’re not cutting the school budget, remember that,” she said, turning to the parents in the audience. "It’s doubled in 10 years. It will continue to grow. There’s lots of people still hurting, there’s still lots of foreclosures happening.”

Colin Dacey said that the “benefit salary for our town employees is 50 percent,” and asked the First Selectman, Thomas Herrmann,  if that rate was “comparable to other [surrounding] towns.”

“We pay less in wage compensation levels of state employees” than surrounding towns, Herrmann said.

Residents also spoke out in favor of the public safety budgets.

“I would like to support the public safety budget,” said Steve Waugh, the First Assistant Chief of the . “One thing to keep intact [and not cut from the budget] is engine replacement,” Waugh said, citing a 25 year-old fire truck engine, which is five years beyond its recommended replacement.

Laurie Israel also supported the public safety budget.

“What makes me feel safe at night is that the police department, EMS and fire department are fully staffed,” Israel said. “We need the budget to be passed as delivered. No one is going to want to live here if it’s not safe."

Budget drivers

Contractual wage increases across the board were the primary budget driver, dragging along with it increased health care and pension costs.

Other increases came from the following budgets: public works (2.9 percent or $51,446), public health (2.2 percent or $7,373), and public safety (3 percent or $74,188). Other departments including Parks and Recreation, the , firehouse rent, public welfare, and the conservation commission increased a total of 2.1 percent, or $22,237.

Capital requests

Capital increases include revaluations by the assessor department ($45,000), two police vehicles ($39,000), equipment maintenance for the fire department ($112,000), new radios and pagers for the Emergency Medical Services Commission ($36,787), general road work ($296,500) and lease payment for the tree warden ($33,580).

The total capital request is $562,867.

Andrew Kachele, Board of Finance member said he'd like the public's opinion on what to do about capital expenditures.

“What do you think is the most prudent course of action,” he said, adding if the public thought holding off on upgrading equipment and maintenance fees found in the capital budget would be preferable to paying them outright.

“Please don’t hesitate to email us about what to do with the capital [budget],” Kachele said.

Town accounts

Town accounts, which consist of wages, operating costs, pension, debt services, fringe benefits and insurance, increased by 2.8 percent or $441,334. The combined cost of all town accounts is $16,199,952.

The town will vote on the proposed budgets on May 3.