Tolland Town Manager Issues Budget Update

TOLLAND, CT — The town manager on Tuesday released the following budget update to Tolland residents:

"Since my Thursday presentation on the budget I continue to receive more information on the details of the Governor's budget and its impact on Tolland. In addition I am continuing to look at alternatives to reduce the mill rate increase associated with this budget.

"To that end I am currently at a decrease in the Town budget of 2.89 % with the types of changes in services previously outlined. With the Board of Education budget I have reduced their current budget by 3.05% or 1.2 million dollars which will be offset by a new special education grant of the same amount which goes directly to the Board so their expenditures will remain flat at current expenditure levels.

"Event with these decreases, the mill rate increases from the current 34.19 mills to 39 mills or an increase of 4.81 mills or 14.069%. The reasons for the increase are entirely related to legislative action or Governor proposals. The legislative action is the reduction of the motor vehicle tax cap from 37 mills to 32 mills which means a loss of revenue to the Town of $200,000.

"Governor proposals are the reduction in ECS revenue and the transfer of 1/3 of the teacher pension costs which in total is a 7 million dollar negative impact to Tolland.
I thank the many residents who have contacted me with questions and comments related to the budget. I am hopeful that a budget update briefing meeting with the public can be scheduled for mid-march to allow for a discussion of any new information and to receive public comment. Time and place to be announced shortly.

"In the meantime, if you are so inclined, I would encourage you to contact local legislators and express your feelings on the impact of the Governor's proposed budget on Tolland. In addition you might encourage our legislators to consider giving towns and cities more discretion in establishing local sales tax or to increase the statewide sales tax or reduce exemptions to the tax to allow additional revenue for our troubled urban centers without redirecting our ECS funds for that purpose.

"I recognize the serious financial problems facing our state and urban centers and as a state we need to find alternatives that do not negatively impact the vast majority of towns while benefiting only a few. Our legislators also have to act to repeal a number of very costly unfounded state mandates and eliminate barriers towns face in trying to establish shared services.

"Finally encourage our legislators to adopt a budget schedule that is more in line with town budgets . To have the state adopt a budget regularly that is after all town budgets are adopted and be on an October fiscal year basis while all towns are on a July basis makes no sense. It's bad enough that we may be so severely impacted by the State, it is only further complicated by the fact that no one can tell us at this time with certainty the ultimate impact of this budget.

"As always, if you have further comments or questions you can email me at swerbner@tolland.org."

Steve Werbner, Town Manager

Photo Credit: Patch file