Stamford Finance Board Makes Budget Cuts, Board Of Reps Up Next

STAMFORD, CT — The Stamford Board of Finance this week trimmed the proposed fiscal year 2024-2025 $685.4 million budget and passed the spending plan on to the Board of Representatives, who will examine it during a special meeting on May 2.

Board Of Ed., City Operating Budget

Finance board members approved a cut of $3 million from the Board of Education's budget, but not before debating whether to approve a larger cut of $5 million instead.

Republican member Dennis Maroney said the cut was actually equal to $1.5 million because of "free cuts." He said a $5 million cut would mean a 1 percent reduction in a requested budget of $333.7 million.

"Those free cuts are simply changes or modifications based on updated information," he said. "For this board, I think we need to have the courage to send the board of education a message, not in any sort of negative or mean-spirited way, that they need to sharpen their pencils and they need to focus on being more collaborative with this board and try to seek out those reductions over the course of the next year."

The vote for the larger $5 million cut was split among the six-person board and it failed, and vote for the $3 million cut was approved afterward.

On the city side of the operating budget, the board cut $2.15 million. Mayor Caroline Simmons requested a $341.7 million budget.

Notably, Democratic member Mary Lou Rinaldi proposed a motion to cut $128,147 for a construction manager for a new South Stamford school.

Rinaldi said she didn't see the value of adding the position now, especially since Westhill and another elementary school still need to be built first. The motion passed unanimously.

Additionally, a motion to cut $142,554 for an emergency management director position passed unanimously. Rinaldi said the job can be managed by employees already in place.

General cuts of $250,000 each were made to the police and fire departments. Democrat Geoff Alswanger said six police sergeants have been transferred back to the police department over the past year, which should help with overtime and other areas to be determined by the department.

Freedman said the fire department has run a surplus of more than $250,000 a year for many years, and "should be able to absorb this cut."

Cuts were also made to Inspirica ($20,000), Liberation Programs ($15,000), and New Covenant House ($20,000). A total of $250,980 was cut from the Stamford PAL, Building One Community, Jewish Family Services, Silver Source, Summer Care Poverty Alleviation, and the Multicultural Council.

Stamford Capital Budget

The finance board cut $5.4 million from Mayor Caroline Simmons' proposed $66 million capital budget.

A motion to cut $225,000 for Scofield Manor exterior improvements was approved unanimously, as was a cut of $750,000 for the Housing Development Fund.

"I would encourage the Housing Development Fund to go to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to the extent that it has funds, and if it does not, I'd be open to them coming back to our board when they have a real project for us to consider," Burwick said.

Later on, Burwick proposed a motion to cut $250,000 for an overall needs assessment for city fields.

"It just sounded to me like a lot of money to spend to analyze the fields we have," she said.

Board members approved a cut of $301,198 for electric vehicle charging stations in the Stamford Government Center parking garage. Members said the city doesn't have any electric vehicles in its fleet at the moment, and they wanted a more comprehensive electric vehicle plan first.

Towards the end of the meeting, Freedman proposed a cut of $500,000 for a public safety complex assessment at the site of the old police headquarters.

"I just don't see how we're going to undertake a project of this magnitude given all the capital spending we're putting into the schools," he said.

The Board of Finance is slated to set the city's mill rate on May 15.

More budget information can be found here. The April 16 Board of Finance special meeting can be viewed in full here.