East Granby Finance Board Ends Deadlock with Call for 3.7% Tax Increase

After six votes and one failed motion, the six-member East Granby Board of Finance finally broke through a deadlock Tuesday evening to provide further guidance to the Boards of Selectmen and Education on their operating budgets for the 2012-13 fiscal year.

The finance board, in a 4-2 vote, ultimately offered the following guidelines to the town's two operating boards: the schools budget come in at no more than $14.26 million, which represents a 4.9 percent spending increase over current year; and that the selectmen's budget come in at $4.23 million, which represents a 2.83 percent spending increase over current year.

If it’s set with those figures after the public hearing on April 3 and subsequently approved by voters, the budget’s mill rate in East Granby would increase by one mill from 27 to 28 mills, representing a 3.7 percent hike.

The finance board reached its decision after a healthy debate that centered primarily over school spending as well as what, if any, tax increase would be palatable to East Granby residents. Finance board member Mark Porter insisted that the proposed tax increase should be below 4 percent.

Against that backdrop, the finance board deadlocked at 3-3 on the first five motions, with Lee Sandora, Tami Zawistowski and Mike Malloy all voting against several options that called for school spending to increase in the 4.5 to 4.75 percent range and the selectmen's operating budget to increase between 2.5 and 3 percent.

In the discussions during and prior to the motions, Zawistowski and Sandora both called for school spending to be capped at a 1 to 1.5 percent increase - with no tax increase, while Malloy took the opposing view and sought to fund the school board’s full request of a 5.3 percent increase.

Zawistowski said that she had several concerns, including the town taking on new debt to fund the Seymour Elementary and Allgrove School renovations, as well as whether the school district’s small size made sense to run independently and should be regionalized.

“We’re too small … we should consider regionalizing, at least at the high school level,” she said.

The economic climate also factored into Zawistowski’s analysis.

“People are still hurting,” she said. “We need to take a hard look at the education system.”

Malloy, however, said that any attempt at reducing the budget should not be done at the expense of educating the students currently enrolled in East Granby public schools.

“I would support a 5 percent increase very reluctantly,” Malloy said at one point during the meeting, noting that the austere budgets in recent years meant that the town would eventually have to spend more “to make up for it.”

Malloy also noted that the school board did everything it could to make the current year’s budget work and that it reduced this year’s budget request to 5.3 percent through, among other things, increased participation in the Project Choice program by some 50 students, which means additional reimbursement from the state.

“They jumped through hoops to keep the education system running,” Malloy said. “Taking 50 students is dramatic. I think we’re splitting hairs when we should be supporting their effort.”

Finance board Chairman David Kilbon and members James Feeney and Porter were all in favor of supporting a schools budget that increased by no more than 4.75 percent. They eventually met Malloy somewhere in the middle of his and their request at 4.9 percent.

Still, last night’s directive from the finance board represented increases for both operating boards, which received prior guidance in early March from the finance board to submit budgets with 2.5 percent spending increases.

The selectmen’s budget saw money reintroduced for the Ambulance Association and a new refrigerator/freezer at the Senior Community Center, among other things.

The finance board also appeared to respond to the 60 or so members of the public who were in attendance at the meeting, the vast majority of whom were in favor of approving the school board’s request for a 5.3 percent spending increase.

Cheri Burke, speaking as an East Granby parent and not in her role as the principal of Seymour Elementary School, said that the world was changing “drastically” for her four children. The school system, Burke said, was facing unprecedented challenges from the state, including ramped up common core standards and unfunded mandates, such a testing children on a computer.

Burke said that Seymour had only 25 computers for its 138 students.

“We need to put children first,” she said.

School board Chairman Kirby Huget said during the second public comment portion of the meeting that he agreed with Zawistowski that education reform needed to take place, but at the state level.

Specifically, Huget said that the state needed to eliminate binding arbitration from the public employee collective bargaining laws to help the school district in negotiations with what he called one of the strongest labor unions - the teachers’ union - in the state.

Furthermore, Huget said that the state needed to eliminate unfunded mandates on towns.

“They shove their ideas down our throats,” Huget said.

Some residents, however, said that regardless of the schools’ plight, the town and its residents could not afford spending increases.

“I’m extremely sympathetic that we want to spend as much as we can on the kids, but we also have to consider with our children personal responsibility,” Leo Stemp said. “It’s anathema to me to spend [other residents’] money on my child.”

The next finance board meeting is April 3, after the town’s public hearing.

Correction: the original article stated that funds were reinserted to the selectmen's budget for ambulance equipment. The funds were added for the Ambulance Association. The Granbys Patch regrets the error.