Board of Finance Budget Hearing May 18, 2016

Board of Finance Budget Hearing May 18, 2016

At the Last Board of Finance Meeting on April 19, we once again had a telephone hook-up. This time with Linda Schofield who was out of town. Although the Freedom of information Act allows this for attendance purposes, it does not work on a meeting as important as the Board of Finance with inadequate transmission of presenters and audio from the Board itself not transmitted adequately. Linda Schofield’s hook-up was less than adequate leaving some of the comments from the presenters and the board inaudible due to poor transmission and loss of the phone connection during the meeting. Linda Schofield’s phone hook-up was necessary to have a quorum. However, the fact that she was not fully informed on the conversation due to inadequate transmission, her participation was less valuable than a sitting member. I would like to recommend that the Board of Finance eliminate the phone-hook-ups at their meetings.

Now that the Town has some idea on the revenues from the State, it appears that we are at a short-fall of $315,463. How is the Board of Finance going to address this issue? Simsbury has the highest mill rate in the surrounding area, leaving Simsbury less competitive with the surrounding areas. There are financial indicators that should alert the Board of Finance that revenues will diminish over the years. The Hartford building will be demolished with a loss of $1.5 million dollars. The building bubble will eventually bust and due to too much supply with little demand, lowering the costs of the buildings which will lead to lower assessments leading to lower tax revenue. Simsbury will receive less revenue from the State, leading to increasing taxes or reducing budgets.

Many of the Capital Expenditures and non-profit organizations should not receive tax dollars.

The golf course should be self-funding or the town should look into contracting out the golf course to remove the tax burden to Simsbury residents.

$125,000 golf course improvements should be eliminated

$240,000 greenway Improvements - money should be raised by private organizations

$400,000 Open Space Planning and Improvements – Open Space should remain open with no costs associated with improvements. Paying $11 million for the Open space at the Ethel Walker property should remain in its original state without any additional costs.

$100,000 for Veteran Memorial should be funded with private funds

$15,000 for a golf utility cart for the private non-profit Performing Arts that should be paid with revenues from the non-profit group not taxpayer dollars

$130,000 for Plan of Conservation and Development should be in the operating budget

$92,500 Land Use Studies should be in the operating budget

Many other maintenance projects should be in the operating budget or eliminated.

The Board of Education should also place maintenance projects in the operating budget. Why are the tennis courts at the High School not a priority item when they are dangerous and unsafe to play on but the turf field for $660,000 is a priority? How can the Board of Education invite other school tennis teams to play on the unsafe tennis courts at the High School and the Junior High when the liability is so great? The Board of Education is spending $1,950,000 for the renovation of the Junior High School before the unsafe fields and tennis courts are renovated? Why should the inside of the school have a higher priority than the safety of the courts and fields on the outside? The fields and the tennis courts at the Junior High are used year round by many groups that could increase our liabilities. Safety should be a priority expenditure.

The Board of Finance has to look to the future economic indicators and review these budgets to lower the expenditures so that Simsbury can be competitive in the future. We can no longer use our General Fund as the slush fund to pay for projects that should be eliminated from the budget entirely or placed in the operating budgets. Taxpayers should not pay for private non-profit groups. These expenditures should be eliminated from the budget.

It is the responsibility of the Board of Finance to hold the line on spending and not “kick the can down the road.” The budgets should be thoroughly vetted before they go before the public for a referendum vote.

All of my comments will be posted on Simsbury Patch, Simsbury Forum/Topix, Twitter@joancoe

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