Thursday, January 08, 2009

09/10 Schools budget - Jan 8

I was at the Human Services Committee meeting tonight... pretty much until the initial schools budget meeting concluded. But I did pop upstairs and get a copy of the Superintendent's proposed budget. Two main highlights are here...

There's a proposed 3.98% spending increase in the budget:

And the student population continues its downward trend that has been ongoing for several years as you can see highlighted:From an economic standpoint, my initial reaction is that the budget will need to be cut... and I'm not expecting to vote for a 4% tax increase this year.

The big question for me though... what's about to happen with state funding?

A $2 million cut to Cheshire's education funding has already been mentioned in the press. And at the existing tax rate... one mill is about $2.4 million. In other words, (ignoring the town side of the budget) the Council would have to raise taxes nearly one mill to simply maintain current spending levels.

Your thoughts on the school budget and taxes?

Tim White

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

what is with the $1.2 Million....15% increase in tne employee benefit line item?

Time to shop around for a new insurance carrier?

Anonymous said...

I think we should follow the lead of West Hartford and reject the budget as many times as it takes to get the message across. This is a painful year for everybody and NO increases should be the cry. Wake up Cheshire!!!

Anonymous said...

Cutting back is for little people. Public education never has a recession!

And if we're challenged, we just retort, but it's for the children! That's always the discussion stopper. We can cite all kinds of "research" to defend our spending. (Little does the public realize that most educational "research" is just theory, not critically proven).

So shut up, pay up, and like it. Right Matt?

Anonymous said...

Florio and the Union simply use children to enrich themselves. It's not about the children, it's about themselves.

We should outsource the school administration.

Anonymous said...

Florio and the teachers are just interested in enriching themselves? That is absurd. You may have disagreements but you cannot take away how hard they work. I taught Sunday school for an hour and had to go home and take a nap. Not easy stuff keeping kids involved and focused.

Anonymous said...

Florio has assumed in the 09/10 budget that the State will give the same amount for ECS, that being $9,298,837. Is he kidding? If the State cuts that funding which is likely, there will need to be even bigger reductions. I think he's way off on assuming he'll get the same amount.

Anonymous said...

The State BOE advised districts to expect to lose $400/student off ECS. That comes to a bit over $2 Million for Cheshire, and about .9 Mills on RE taxes.

Let's start dealing with reality, for once......

Anonymous said...

"I think he's way off on assuming he'll get the same amount."

I don't think your suppose to notice that at this time. It's supposed to come as a surprise down the road.

Anonymous said...

This may be an interesting thread of it's own, but for the most part parents Do Not have a problem with a student activity fee. These people have been paying all along to participate in youth sports. The activity fee is actually less!