Hiring Freeze Declared in Tolland Budget Message

TOLLAND, CT — Town Manager Steve Werbner on Tuesday issued the following budget/tax message:

To The Residents of Tolland,

Shortly, you will be getting a tax bill for the next fiscal year.

This bill is based on the current mill rate since the Town has not established a budget for the next fiscal year.

We continue to wait for the outcome of the State budget process which is now going to be determined in a special session that has yet to begin.

This is the first time in my 40-plus years in local government that I am starting a fiscal year without an established budget.

What this means is that we, as well as the Board of Education, have to limit spending to only those items absolutely required at this time.

A hiring freeze will be put in place and all expenditures are being scrutinized closely by the Finance Department.

You will recall the last proposed budget of the Governor meant a loss in state revenue to the Town of over eight million dollars. Just to address that loss in funds would require an approximate 22% increase in taxes. Assuming that at some point our final budget will require a reduction in expenditures as well as a tax increase each month into the fiscal year it makes it that much more difficult to manage reductions. How does the school system reasonably plan for a school year that starts in September when there is no established budget?

How does the Town plan for service levels in areas such as Public Safety and Public Works with no established budget? If either the Town or Board of Education has to plan for reductions, the problem is intensified if we only have two thirds or one half of the fiscal year remaining. We must remember that whenever the State finally establishes it will take the Town time to resume its budget process which will consist of the Town Council adopting a budget, holding a Public Hearing on the budget recommended for adoption at the Annual Budget Referendum and then holding the Budget Referendum.

I would ask that you contact your local legislators and ask that they have some urgency in commencing the special session and once convened that they do what they are elected to do and that is debate and then legislate! We can only hope that in the process the impact on Tolland will be lessened, but whatever the outcome we need to know sooner than later. I thank you all for your understanding during this very difficult budget process.

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