Budget workshop 3/14
ouch.
I just lost my entire post on tonight's budget workshop.
ouch.
Long story, short... Michael Milone gave the highlights, including assumptions used in the budgeting process, such as "tax collection" rate. That is, we assume a collection rate of 98.6%, not 100%... we assume some people will not pay.
Also the Water Pollution Control Department was a hot topic. The Town Manager suggested doing an operational review for a variety of reasons, including a possible rollout of a user-based fee, increased energy costs and, my favorite, possible underfunding of the State Clean Water Fund. Why's that one my favorite? Simple... because the SCWF helps the Town fund projects (such as pump stations) through low interest bonds. Of course, those bonds are piggybacked on the state. But that rating held by the state is contingent upon The Big Boys (Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, etc.) believing that The Nutmeg State is financially sound. And from what I've been hearing, with tens of billions of dollars in outstanding debt and postretirement benefits... The Big Boys are beginning to get concerned about CT. And that's good because if I know, maybe the financially illiterate folks in Hartford will do something before it's too late and stuff begins to visibly fall apart.
Anyway, I wrote a good post, but lost it. If you're interested though, here's a piechart of where the town spends money (click on it to enlarge it). As well, debt can be broken into three add'l parts... education 30%, WPCD 20%, town 50%.
Tim White
Town Council, Budget Committee
9 comments:
Pie charts are very telling. The education piece looks like a hungry yellow monster eating up everything else. It's probably always been that way but it wasn't always our little local monster...in the past the state provided better.
I heard that Cheshire has one of the lowest per-student spendig in our reference group. That means that we are 10th out of 13 towns. I think that this would be a great year to "catch-up" and bring Cheshire back to a leadership position in education. If we don't, we will see a decline in our property values.
Spending on a per student basis is not a good way to measure success in an education system. If that was true than Hartford, Bridgeport and New Haven would have the best test scores. We should measure success of the school system by how many students graduate college not by how many get accepted. We should measure success by how many students entering college do not have to take remedial math as a freshman. To relate property values as part of a measurement of educational success is a bit greedy. Property values should reflect the overall quality of the town; to include public safety, education success; both academic and athletic; town debt,leisure services etc.
If you want to make the case that Cheshire overspends on education then you have to make the comparison with other simular towns. When we do we see that we are at the lower end. Of course just spending money does not make for a good system-but if you say we overspend-then compare we can see that is a false argument and does not hold water
It won't be long until the word is out that the 'nuts' in town are pushing for lower education spending and people decide that it is no long worth buying in Cheshire since the education is on the slide and our property values start a slide. People tell me that it is already happening.
Where have you been? There are many houses for sale in Cheshire but not because of a lack of education spending. Property values are on a down slide across the country. The housing market slump has caused the stock market over the past week to decline significantly. To equate property values only to the education system is unrealistic. See what happens to your property values when the taxes are unaffordable. I always find the argument of property values amusing since your property value only matters if and when you sell your house. ARE YOU SELLING?
Then why do young families move to Cheshire, the great welcome that we give people with kids or the great parks that we have or maybe to pool? They move here for schools. If schools are better some where else that is where they will go. Don't fool yourself.
No one is saying Cheshires' school system is not great, but to equate the schools as the only reason for property values is wrong. Many people with no children move to Cheshire, it's a quiet, safe town. Our school system is good not because of the money spent but because we have parents that care and are involved in their childrens education. The inner cities spend a small fortune on education but because the majority of parents are uninterested the children suffer.
The budget process is where we should concentrate all our efforts. Whether it is the town or school budget we should make sure all of our tax money is being spent wisely. It is also the process by which we can find efficiencies and solutions to our spending. Townwide participation is very important during this process.
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