East Granby School Board Discusses Further Reduction to Budget

With the third Town Meeting looming, the East Granby Board of Education at its regular meeting on Monday discussed how it will further reduce its budget request by $60,000.

The discussion was necessitated by the May 23 defeat of the second referendum that sought approval of a $18.91 million budget that called for a 2.3 percent tax increase. The accompanying advisory questions revealed that most voters believed that the schools $14.1 million budget request was too high.

As such, immediately after the results of the second referendum were announced, the Board of Finance made a $60,000 reduction to the schools budget request, paring it down to $14.04 million, which represents a 3.28 percent spending increase over current levels.

The $60,000 reduction, according to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Christine Mahoney, will result in cuts not only to line items such as heating, oil and supplies, but also to programming, meaning that there will likely be a reduction in non-certified staff.

Mahoney declined to elaborate, however, where the cuts will come from, and she stated that more information would be available at the June 7 Town Meeting, where the the Board of Selectmen and the school board will present their portions of an $18.84 million budget, which represents a 1.99 percent spending increase over the current year’s expenditures.

If passed, the finance board projects a .3 mill increase in taxes or an increase of 1.1 percent. According to a press release from the town, a house assessed at $170,000, a 1.1 percent mill rate increase would represent a $50 increase in taxes for the year. For a house assessed at approximately $350,000, a 1.1 percent increase would mean an increase of $100 on next year’s tax bill.

Yet there are those in town who will not support any tax increase.

Ed Zawistowski, the president of Concerned Taxpayers of East Granby, said that, with the largest tax increase in the history of the state and fuel prices increasing, even a $20 increase in taxes “is a lot of money.”

“Any tax increase is not a good thing for the individual, the community or the economy,” Zawistowski said in a telephone interview last week. “Any tax increase is a bad thing right now. In a year or two, fine. But right now, it’s just tough. …

“I wouldn’t vote for any tax increase. At this stage, people can’t afford it.”

William O’Neill, a member of CTEG and the Fiscal Responsibility PAC, said that he was in favor of “kids in East Granby having a high-quality education.”

“I am not opposed to education,” he said. “What I am opposed to is excessive spending that does not produce that.”

O’Neill said that the selectmen’s budget was, at best, “appropriate” and, at worst, “a little lacking.”

“In terms of education, I think more can be done to reduce expenses than what is asked for by our superintendent of schools.”

The Town Meeting will be held at the at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 7. After the presentation and a question and answer session, the Town Meeting will be adjourned without a vote to a machine ballot referendum called by the Board of Selectman for Thursday, June 14 from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. The referendum will be held at the Town’s traditional polling place, the Senior & Community Center.