$342.7 Million Fairfield Budget Approved By Board Of Selectmen

FAIRFIELD, CT — The proposed 2023 Fairfield budget was approved Monday by a divided Board of Selectmen, after the body split on whether to increase education funding.

The board did, however, unanimously sign off on just over $272,000 in reductions and $50,000 in added revenue, before voting in favor of the roughly $342.7 million budget. The spending plan, as put forth by First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick, would increase the mill rate by 0.98 percent.

Selectwoman Nancy Lefkowitz, who cast the lone vote against the budget, motioned repeatedly and unsuccessfully to restore various levels of funding to the Board of Education. Kupchick’s spending plan increased the school district budget by $7.9 million, $2.5 million less than what the school board requested.

“I just think that the budget that they presented is what they need to effectively care and educate, and for the health and safety of our kids,” said Lefkowitz, the Board of Selectmen's sole Democrat, who motioned to restore $2 million, then $330,000 and finally $122,000 to the school board budget.

Kupchick argued the nearly $8 million increase to the education budget shows the town is invested in its schools.

“These are not easy decisions to make and there’s a lot of competing needs in our town,” she said.

Selectman Tom Flynn remarked that $2 million is only about 1 percent of the school district’s roughly $200 million spending plan.

“What we need to wrap our minds around is, what is the best possible school system that we can afford?” he said. “I have faith that that reduction can be done with minimal to no impact to the classroom.”

Instead of increasing school funding, the selectmen moved money — saved by actions such as cutting payroll at Penfield Pavilion, reducing unemployment compensations and changing the line item for crossing guards from the town to the school district budget — in order to pay for paving and contingency.

The board opted unanimously to add $200,000 to cover paving costs and lower bonding, while Flynn and Kupchick voted to increase contingency expenditures by $122,000 in light of pending union contract negotiations and town firefighters seeking arbitration.

Now that it has been approved by selectmen, the budget will go to the Board of Finance and the Representative Town Meeting for consideration.