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Clinton Seeks 4.4% Spending Increase for Town and Schools

The Town of Clinton will present a proposed town and school budget increase of $2,203,541 or 4.4 percent with an anticipated tax increase of around $3.5 million for 2017-’18. at a public hearing Wednesday, April 12.

First Selectman Bruce Farmer declined to discuss the budget proposal, citing ongoing work that needs to be done before the board finalizes its proposal.

According to the legal notice at http://clintonct.org/documentcenter/view/3819 dated March 13, the proposed town operations budget for 2017-’18 is $17,597,599, an increase of $304,699 or 1.7 percent above the 2016-’17 budget voters approved in May 2016. The proposed Board of Education Budget is $34,999,831, which is an increase of $2,354,756 or 5.78 percent.

The biggest driver of change in the budget proposal is the bonded debt increase in the education budget, according to Finance Director Janet Murphy. Murphy said that the payments for the recently built new Morgan School are beginning to become due, which accounts for the largest portion of the debt.

Board of Finance Chairman Jack Scherban estimates a tax increase of around $3.5 million or about 8.5 percent.

“This has been a very difficult budget season,” Scherban said.

Scherban blamed the unknown numbers of the state’s revenue as the main reason for the difficulty in finalizing a budget proposal.

“It’s very difficult to do a budget when you don’t know the revenues,” Scherban said.

The town also has to deal with cuts to education aid.

“The state dealt us a tough hand,” Murphy said.

In the state’s proposed budget, Clinton would lose $5.2 million in Education Cost Sharing grants that the state provides to towns to offset education costs. According to Murphy, Farmer and Superintendent of schools Maryann O’Donnell have been active in trying to fight the state’s proposed cuts to the town’s education. O’Donnell said that she and Farmer have been “pounding the pavement,” by using their respective channels to oppose the state.

In 2016 Clinton was able to pass a town and education budget on the first try for the first time in seven years by a narrow margin.

The town and Board of Education will present their budgets on April 12 at 7 p.m. in the Town Hall auditorium. The budgets will go to a referendum on May 10.