It was in the third hour of New Fairfield’s Board of Finance (BOF) meeting on Wednesday, March 22 that the cards were laid on the table regarding large cuts that are needed to the operating budgets for the Town’s Board of Education (BOE) and Board of Selectmen (BOS) budgets. After skirting around actual numbers at the start, it became clear in a poll of BOF members that the currently proposed budgets that amount to an increase of over 13%, will need to decrease well into the mid-single digits. This will not happen without significant cuts to the operating budgets for the Town and schools.
BOF Board Chair Mr. Wes Marsh laid out the multi-pronged approach to reducing the tax increase, including how best to leverage a debt service bond premium, which can be used to reduce the debt service amount in the budget, to possibly reduce medical expenses, stop-loss rebates, get credit from prescriptions, and more. There is also a likelihood of taking a contribution from the OPEC Fund to pay for retiree medical expenses. There is disagreement over whether to use the bond premium quickly to alleviate the current crunch or to disperse it over a multi-year period, also much consternation over how best and over what period to rebuild the Medical Reserve Fund. Mr. Kim Hanson stated he is concerned with using all financial tricks up their sleeves in one swoop, especially given talk of more bonding on large projects that were discussed at this meeting, “I don’t like to just look at one year and I like to look at what the effects will be down the line…I just think that’s asking for continued trouble year after year.”
It was supposed that the tax rate could be far higher than normal this year, with the justification to the taxpayers that this is the BOF trying their best and having “only one really bad year rather than two or three,” but that does not appear to be where plans lie. It was acknowledged that the current school district superintendent, Dr. Kenneth Craw, walked into a tough budget year and inherited what will now be a difficult budget to wean down. In reaction to what was becoming apparent regarding cuts to the budget, Craw appealed to the BOF that the schools need to be maintained at the current staffing and program levels to continue to rebound from the pandemic. Both BOE and BOS budgets are charged with the need to identify large cuts, regardless of how federal aid was spent during the pandemic, or on what specific positions or projects.
In their budget lowering considerations, Ms. Cheryl Reedy expressed gratitude that no one was suggesting cutting Unappropriated Funds, which serve as contingency monies in emergencies. She noted that these funds contributed to the AAA-rating that was just granted to the Town in going out to bond for the school projects in recent weeks.
There was a lengthy discussion about potential future bonding for middle school capital projects to “renovate as new.” In an effort to avoid the need for a third new school in the near term, the BOF and BOE discussed what the process of renovating as new would look like in broad terms, obviously acknowledging that prices and timelines are all in question. Logically, renovating an existing building creates snowball issues. While the plan would theoretically be to update the school’s outer envelope first, projects such as the roof replacements will require the beginning of large internal updates, such as mechanical systems.
All agreed that it was helpful to have an understanding about the future needs and begin to envision how to realistically address the middle school’s needs without adding piecemeal projects for the school to the BOE’s annual capital budget requests, which it was acknowledged should be for one-off projects, such as an oft-discussed underground oil tank that needs removal, vehicle replacements, smaller equipment updates, and the like. Also, the possibility of state reimbursement for renovating as new holds great appeal, rather than potentially wasting money by tackling any bitty middle school updates that may be swept into a larger remodel, once the projects begin.
BOF members were candid about the fact that taxpayers need to be made aware that this is coming, especially since there are perceived mixed impressions regarding large future bonding needs. In next steps, the need for reconvening or establishing a new committee to consider the middle school plan was agreed upon. A group was created for this in recent years but disbanded when there was disagreement on approach and timing—it appears that Reedy and Hanson will be tapped for inclusion. It was also agreed that a philosophical agreement is needed by Town officials to carry through on promises that are made to the taxpayers in this process. Pragmatically, Hanson brought up an interesting long-term preparedness thought that demolition of the current high school might not be wise at this point, given the difficulty of renovating as new and having the space would allow for flexibility. A move to halt that demolition could avoid the need for costly portable classrooms.
Given the overarching discussion about the need for cuts and tighter budgets in current and upcoming cycles, and the interest in creating a more cohesive plan for the middle school needs, there are likely candidates for cutting or assumptions made on a newly created 10-year education capital plan. While a difficult exercise, given the many balls in the air, Reedy said that the plans need to be more accurate than they currently are, “the bottom line remains that, if we’re going to plan for long-term capital spending in this town, we have to have some reasonable numbers, and every year…they have to be increased by either the cost of inflation or if they’ve risen more than the cost of inflation. That’s the way a capital plan works.” There was a quick address of the need for central office space, one location for which may be the current high school cafeteria.
There was a brief conversation about the need for turf replacement, which it was reminded was supposed to be covered by collected field fees. The amount of field fees do not appear to be enough to cover the replacement and taxpayers may need to supplement the fees, though they were originally promised they would never need to do so.
New Fairfield’s Board of Finance will continue to meet virtually weekly, Wednesdays, at 7:30 p.m.
By Sarah Opdahl