Guilford First Selectman Responds to State's Funding Cuts

By Jack Kramer, Correspondent

GUILFORD, CT – First Selectman Joe Mazza understands that the state has big budget problems but he also has a suggestion for the governor and legislators if they are continue to pare town budgets in an effort to help control Connecticut’s $1.5 billion deficit.

“If the state is going to keep cutting our funding,” said Mazza, “they could do us a favor by also cutting back on some of their unfunded mandates that they saddle towns with.”

“If they pared back on those, gave us some relief, it would help,” said the first selectman.

Guilford, like every other town in the state, just got the bad news that its education funding would be cut in the middle of this budget year, to help offset the state’s spiraling deficit problems.

Guilford was slated to receive $2.912 million in education funding this year; instead it will receive $171,845 less - or $2.74 million.

In a letter to municipal leaders, Office of Police and Management Secretary Ben Barnes let municipal leaders know the state was exercising its ability to cut $20 million in municipal aid and $30 million in funding for local construction projects.

Barnes said the cut were necessary for the state to balance its books.

This is on top of earlier cuts made to municipal budgets earlier this year.

Mazza said he’s tried to be proactive, knowing that the state was going to come back to the towns looking for more money.

“Earlier this year I put a freeze on all unspent capital projects,” said Mazza. “I hated to do that, but it was necessary.”

“We’ll get through the winter and see where we stand,” said the first selectman, who said one option the state always has to bring more money in is something that the towns can’t do.

“The state can always raise fees,’’ said Mazza. “We can’t. I don’t like that option either, but depending on what those fees were – it might hurt towns like Guilford less than the cuts we are incurring.”

At a meeting last week in Rocky Hill, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy told local elected officials that he would trade the state’s $1.5 billion budget deficit for their budget woes and cash balances any day of the week.

“You think you’ve got problems? I’ll give you $1.5 billion worth of problems if you want them,” Malloy joked during his opening remarks at the annual Connecticut Council of Small Towns meeting in Rocky Hill.