By James Lomuscio
Schools Superintendent Colleen Palmer said tonight the school system is staring down a 4.9 percent increase over the current $114,377,000 budget for the 2018-19 academic year.
Colleen Palmer: concerned about “health insurance pressure points.” Dave Matlow / WN file photo
Palmer made her announcement at a Board of Education meeting during a preliminary budget discussion with school board members and town officials.
They included members of the Board of Finance, the Representative Town Meeting (RTM), First Selectman Jim Marpe, and Second Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker. Both Marpe and Tooker are former Board of Education members.
Palmer attributed the jump from this year’s 1.57 percent increase over the previous year to $1 million in health insurance claims that “has had a cascading impact on our budget.”
She said that contractual salaries and benefits, typically 80 percent of the overall operating budget, “will be higher because of health insurance pressure points.”
Those pressure points will result in a 2.7 percent increase in health insurance, a 1.7 percent jump in salaries and benefits, “and all others, .5 percent,” Palmer said.
Meanwhile, she said the school system cannot dip into its health reserves to cover the expenses as it did last year.
“And we do not have a building to give up,” Palmer said.
During the 2017-18 budget session, the school factored in funds from the sale of its no longer needed Riverside Avenue building next to Saugatuck Elementary School, which was put on the market for $800,000. The building has yet to sell.
Marpe said Westport’s budgets would feel the impact of what is happening on the state and federal levels.
“We have to proceed with the idea that we will get nothing from the state,” he said.
At the same time, the challenge will be exacerbated by the still to be agreed upon federal tax plan that could eliminate state and local tax deductions above a certain level from federal income tax, he said.
Marpe said he knows the Democratic state congressional delegation is opposed to the House and Senate versions of the tax plan, and he is seeking help beyond them from other federal legislators, perhaps a reference to fellow Republicans.
But it is tough going, he said. “Who is worried about poor Westport,” Marpe asked, adding that often the response is: “Isn’t that the ‘American Housewife’ place,” a reference to the ABC-TV sitcom set in Westport.
Marpe said it was only this weekend that he started hearing from Westporters concerned about the impact of the federal tax legislation eliminating tax deductions that would raise their taxes and pressure the town budget.
“We will feel that impact as we go through the process,” he said. “This isn’t about a half percent decrease in budget.”
Marpe reminded the educators that many people on the town side will be looking for infrastructure improvements, which was expressed during the recent political campaign.
Brian Stern of the Board of Finance agreed with Marpe, saying the town must try to keep taxes down.
“For us to contemplate a tax increase will be one heck of a pill for the town to take,” Stern said.
He added that uncertainty over current state and federal factors cannot guarantee a healthy grand list.
Stern also said that over the past six years, the Board of Education’s budget has risen 6.2 percent while the town budget has remained flat.
“We have to be sensitive to that,” he said. “Police, fire and public safety have to be balanced against that.”
Despite all the doom and gloom, Stern gave glimpses of silver lining in that pension funds are larger due to a healthy stock market because of “the Trump bump.”
He also said that town will receive some state’s education cost sharing (ECS) grants, which had not been expected.
“My prayer is that you will keep performing well,” Stern said the school board. “We should look at fixed costs.”
Jeff Wieser, chairman of the RTM’s Finance Committee, seemed confident that the school board would weather current budget challenges as it has done in the past.
He said the schools should continue to coordinate with the town via shared services to trim costs.
“The budget process is a challenging one for all of us,” he said. “Knock on wood, I’m confident we will not have a 4.9 percent increase.”
