New Fairfield’s Board of Selectmen (BOS) met on Thursday, February 9 and discussed the current work-in-progress budget. First Selectman Ms. Pat Del Monaco explained the initial pass of the budget, including capital requests, amounted to an astonishing 14.75% increase, prompting her to prioritize the proposed requests. She said to fellow board members, “I just want everyone to know that I didn’t do this without a lot of thought. As a matter of fact, I went through many iterations trying not to do this so I will note that some of these items were funded by the surplus or funded by grants.” The current working budget stands at a 4.87% increase, though this number is subject to change, as this was the first discussion the BOS had about the full budget.
Del Monaco explained, “the way we build our budget every year is that we have a series of public workshops where the department heads come and present their estimation for the needs for the current year and the projections for future years. So, we try to plan five years out for all of our capital projects when we can if we’re going to have future recurring expenses.” After all departments had weighed in “our increase this year is much larger than normal,” about $2 million over last year. “These are numbers we normally don’t see…There are pressures overall on our budget, inflation…is impacting municipal operations. We know we will have a shortfall in the medical fund that has to be addressed by the Board of Finance.”
In addition, Del Monaco acknowledged that the bonding for the new schools “puts pressure on the budget and we also have a very steep increase in our paramedic services in town.”
There were staffing requests that were questioned by BOS members, including an increase from part- to full-time for a position in the Town Clerk’s office. The need is related to new election procedures, in addition to a push for digitizing materials and indexing. There are payroll increases requested for the registrars and poll workers. The BOS will discuss these increases further.
In addition to the budget discussion, the BOS also appointed or re-appointed several residents to local commissions. They reminded local shops that the Small Business Grant Application, funded through ARPA is now up and live on the website Newfairfield.org.
The next regular Board of Selectmen meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 23, 7:30 p.m.
By Sarah Opdahl