Educators, Town Officials Brace for Budget Woes

By James Lomuscio

A new state law requring total town budgets not be more than a 2.5 percent increase over the previous year beginning fiscal year 2018-19 took center stage tonight at the Westport Board of Education.

Joining the board in talks about the 2017-18 school budget were members of the Board of Finance and Representative Town Meeting (RTM) as well as First Selectman Jim Marpe.

The bottom line: such mandated fiscal belt tightening will increase budget woes as the town grapples with the state’s fiscal crisis, unfunded educational mandates, educational cost sharing (ECS) grant cuts, contractual obligations outpacing inflation and per pupil expenditures jumping 11 percent in the past three years, town and school officials said.

Towns where the total budgets, municipal and school, exceed 2.5 percent will be penalized in terms of state funding, according to the mandate. The total operating budget for the town and schools this fiscal year in $204 million.

The mandate seemed a hard pill for town and school officials to swallow tonight, especially as Schools Superintendent Colleen Palmer projected a 4.11 percent increase over the current year’s $113.12 million budget for the 2017-18 school year.

Next year’s budget is the basis for the following year that the mandate takes effect. Meanwhile, the school system has to deal with contracted salary increases while trying to maintain its commitment to educational excellence.

“You can’t find a long-term solution by cutting staff,” Palmer said.

She said the schools want “to be as aggressive as we can” in finding savings in areas such as rebidding health insurance, possible use of health reserve funds and carryover funds and returning “the Riverside Avenue property to the town.”

At the same time she pointed to a loss of $950,000 in ECS grants.

“This will be a difficult year, and everyone on the Board of Finance will work with the Board of Education,” said Brian Stern, finance board chairman.

Stern said the main priority is “to protect the brand of Westport” forged by a stellar school system and quality of life amenities, while at the same time looking out for the taxpayer.

The hurdles Westport will encounter, he said, have been exacerbated by an ailing state economy where the GDP is down 24 percent, an estimated 52,000 persons annually are leaving the state, and there is a current $1.2 billion deficit.

One area school officials can focus on, Stern said, is “to push back on unfunded mandates.”

“I think we should do a full court press on those things,” he said.

He also said the school system should look to build up its carryover account.

“I’m not going to argue for head count cuts, but we should be very careful in hiring for the long term,” Stern said.

He said all town departments need to embrace “zero-based budgets on every budget decision.”

“What does that mean for the police force if we have a 4.11 percent increase for the Board of Education?” Stern asked Palmer. “We have to make sure we understand that.”

Stern said the increase he is aiming for is between 1.7 and 2 percent.

Velma Heller, a former educator who is chair of the RTM Education Committee and sits on the Public Protection Committee, stressed the importance of adequately funding both public safety and schools

“My immediate reaction is what are our chances of overturning that thing,” she said referring to the state mandate.

Michael Rea, finance board vice chairman, also pushed for zero-based budgeting.

“It has to be implemented,” he said. “Take a look at your programs because programs affect staffing. “Everything should be tested under zero-based budgeting because these are the times we are in.”

Board of Finance member Lee Caney said that every budget will require close scrutiny, and that his goal is “to take a fine pen to the operating budget.”

Marpe said that the state’s financial woes keep him up at night, and he argued the need “to do everything we can to offset the negativity of the state.”

He also stressed the need for more collaboration between the town and the school system in areas such as insurance and energy performance contracts to keep costs down.