By Jacqueline Rabe Thomas
As sharp criticism built today of its proposal to end state education aid to 28 of the state’s wealthiest towns, the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy released data to show that most of the towns affected have among the lowest mill rates in the state and rely relatively little on state aid.
(CLICK TO ENLARGE) Ctmirror.org graphic
[Westport, which stands to lose $1,982,936 in educational state aid under the Malloy proposal, had the 13th lowest mill among the 28 towns cited and was third lowest on the list of state aid share as part of its educational budget—tied with New Canaan at 1.85 percent with only Goshen and Warren lower at 0.99 percent and 0.45 percent respectively.]
Facing a sizable budget deficit, the governor on Tuesday proposed eliminating all of the $25 million that the state currently provides to the wealthiest communities through the Education Cost Sharing grant – a move decried by Republican legislators who largely represent those communities.
“We’re in a new economic reality. With fewer resources, it requires difficult choices,” said Devon Puglia, spokesman for the Democratic governor. “We need to provide support to schools and districts that need it most. Taking the same percentage of cuts in towns with wildly varying mill rates and tax bases just doesn’t make sense. We believe we should protect those schools that rely on us most.”
The Gov’s comprehension of basic economics is disturbing, but not surprising. We may have lower mill rates, for now, but w/ the cuts, they will increase. Apparently, he’s unable to see that the gap has to be filled. What a bright bulb in an otherwise dim room.
A couple of years ago I produced a documentary about The Texas Education system and the negative impacts of its budget cuts to Public Education, the adverse effects of standardized testing, and the privatization movement through Charter schools.
With the adoption of SBAC testing and the looming budget cuts to Public Education, It appears as though Connecticut is following in Texas footsteps.
“It seems to me that we’ve lost our mind, and I know we’ve lost our souls.” – Dr. Bertie Simmons – The Texas Promise
For info about the film visit.
http://www.thetexaspromisemovie.org/
The state is broke. When you finally want to understand it you will the. Understand why these cuts are being made. Lower state income tax receipts despite 2 tax increases and higher spending leads to this. Eventually it all come crashing down. Death spiral.
Givernor Malloy and his leadership with support from our own Rep Steinberg passed budgets with too much spending. They also increased the debt to where CT is approaching $25 BILLION and we use some of the proceeds from the new debt to pay off the old debt. If this was your household you would be bankrupt.
Cutting education funds is a way to raise taxes without calling it a tax increase. Now Rep Steinberg has to face his neighbors as he helped cut $2 Million from Westport schools.
GE moved out and so are other companies. Lots of conversations center around how to get out of CT. If we don’t cut spending and have priorities then the death spiral will accelerate.
Dick. The mill rate is a meaningless number and comparison between towns. It is all a function of the grand list in each town and then their budget. A higher priced house with a lower mill rate could produce higher real estate taxes for that owner then a lower priced home and a higher mill rate. And it is also a function of the town budget and what they spend. But it is mostly a function of the amount of homes and commercial real estate and their assessed value.
We always knew that our mill rate was low among our peer towns, with Greenwich the expected lowest. However, according to the table, Darien and New Canaan both have lower mill rates than Westport. How do they do it?
As for the proposed cuts in state funding, not to worry: there’s always the BOE’s “carryover account” balance. 🙂