By James Lomuscio
First Selectman Jim Marpe said today he is closely monitoring but not joining Ridgefield’s threat to sue the state over Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s push to municipalities to pay 30 percent of teacher pensions.
Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi threatened legal action last week if Malloy moves ahead with his proposal. Other towns have reportedly gotten behind Ridgefield.
“I’m in touch with First Selectman Marconi and a number of other town chief executive officers in the area who are exploring this option, and I will monitor their activity,” Marpe said.
“There is some belief it’s not legally possible for a municipality to sue the state, so it would be interesting what the research finds,” he added.
Public school teachers in the state’s Teacher Retirement System contribute 6 percent of their salary, and the state covers the pensions 100 percent for each of Connecticut’s school systems, an amount reported to be about $1.2 billion this year.
Next year Malloy, staring down a $1.7 billion state deficit, wants towns to pitch in $407.6 million, $420.9 in 2019. Affluent towns like Westport that pay teachers higher salaries than other towns would be hit hardest, having to contribute more to retirement.
Westport Board of Finance Chairman Brian Stern has said municipal contributions will grow by 20 percent over five years.
Marconi, saying that Malloy’s proposal violates state law, announced his plan for a suit at a meeting of the Connecticut Council of Small Towns, and other towns have reportedly signed on. The Bridgeport-based law firm Cohen & Wolf is reportedly studying the possibility of the suit.
Malloy’s proposal sent shock waves throughout many of the state’s towns when it was announced last month—especially as the 2017-18 budget season was in full swing.
In Westport, the potential liability translates into an extra $5.9 million per year, $8 million when tallied with $2.1 million in state cuts to the town next year.
Stern has suggested a “modest” tax increase is likely next year despite the fiscally responsible proposed town and school budgets.
The town’s $79 million proposed budget represents a 1.44 percent decrease from 2016-17. The $115,351,346 proposed school budget is a 2.44 percent, or $2.7 million, increase.
The Board of Ed was considering additional cuts tonight.
Now the town and school administrators are looking to cut budgets the finance board had lauded as lean, and which that under normal circumstances would have been quickly approved, according to Stern.
Marpe is sharpening his pencil regardless of whether Marconi’s plan gains traction.
“In the meantime the Board of Finance and I are preparing a budget that reacts in a conservative way to the possibility of losing some portion of state funding,” Marpe said.
“We’re pursuing a parallel course of moving ahead with our budget process, so when it comes to time to mail the new tax bills for the current fiscal year, we’ll have some confidence in the mill rate,” he added.
Marpe said he and town officials are also looking at some give back from the state.
“The other tack we’re taking is to urge our legislators to change many of the unfunded mandates we receive and to help us work with state officials to find ways that the state can help us with properties that we can use for town purposes,” Marpe said.
Westport long has been eyeing state property on the Sherwood Island Connector to park school buses to eliminate an annual $250,000 school bus parking fees.
