Residents Full-Throated in Budget Support and Critique

The Board of Education's budget makes up about 65 percent of Wilton's expenditures and is the largest driving force behind a proposed 5.11 percent increase to town property taxes in the coming fiscal year.

About 100 residents and town officials gathered Wednesday night in Middlebrook School's auditorium to voice their respective support and opposition to that proposal. If it passes, the increase would be the largest in town in five years.

Board of Finance Chairman Warren Serenbetz began the evening with a summary of Wilton's overall financial picture, including a grand list that is expected to grow at only .727 percent, "continuing a downward trend that we've seen over the last seven years," Serenbetz said.  He added that if an impending bond refunding goes well, the mill rate increase may drop to around 4.65 percent, though that is not yet finalized.

Board of Education Chairman Gilmore Bray followed, touching on the declining number of Wilton students (down 67 students, or 1.6 percent by next school year) and a corresponding 2.1 percent decrease in full time employees, as well as the many mitigating factors that lead the board to its proposal. In its current iteration, the cost per pupil in the board's budget would be around $16,446, what Bray said would place Wilton in the lower half of its District Reference Group, and this includes cuts already made to the sophomore mentor program, reduced professional and curriculum development and enrichment programs, and the scrapping of some planned advanced placement classes.

"Health insurance, alone, is about 60 percent of the increase in this particular budget," he added.

The overall Board of Education budget is proposed to rise from $69,475,700 to $71,455,750, or 2.85 percent.

Following the two presentations, Serenbetz moderated an almost two-hour public comment period during which time around 30 residents spoke for three minute intervals, voicing their thoughts on the budget proposal. In the interest of giving a solid cross-section of comments, many of them have been placed below. Our apologies to any names that have been spelled incorrectly-the penmanship on the sign-up sheet was difficult to read.

In Support

Louise Shames

• "I've always been able to praise Wilton for its high quality schools...and I'm also worried that if we continue to whittle away at the quality of our schools, the value of our homes will deteriorate...we do not have the attractions that some of the neighboring towns have (beaches, ready access to Metro North, etc.) so we need to keep the schools as good as we can."
• "Wilton is a public school and all students should be able to participate in activities and their participation should not be rationed by how much they can afford to pay."

Maria Wilcox

• "I support the increase and I wish the school part of it could be higher and I don't mind paying extra property taxes for a quality education...that is why I moved here."

Carolina Corrigan

• "I just want to say thank you to the Board of Ed...I have three children...I really support the Board of Ed budget and I know a lot of other parents who couldn't be here tonight will too."

Andy Driver

• "My wife grew up in Wilton and we've lived in town for more than ten years...as a businessman, I fully appreciate the challenges we all face in this economy. But in the business world, a company's defining moment comes in tough times...as a Wilton inside today, I would urge the Board of Finance to put the Board of Education's recommended budget in front of the voters themselves."

Deborah McFadden

• "I do not want you to cut below the 2.85 percent...although it's going to be painful, we're in the midst of a refinancing and we just found out the value of our house and we were shocked. But even with that in mind, we would like you to not cut further."
• "I'm totally against layoffs...I think people think that if you lay someone off, you get that savings right away. But I think people don't realize that you have to wait for those savings."
• McFadden also pushed the board to consider regional cooperative purchasing and was concerned about the future costs associated with deferred maintenance.

Paul Burnham

• "My wife may not want to hear me say this," as Burnham's wife is Karen Birck, the vice-chairman of the Board of Education, "but I'm not terribly concerned about whether or not my property value goes up or down. I am most concerned about fulfilling what I believe is my moral responsibility in the future of this town and country by doing everything I can while I am paying the taxes that are necessary to provide the quality of education that the people that we have entrusted with the future of education of our children believe is important and to their benefit."

Kathy Grippi

• "My head is reeling with all these great thoughts that I've heard in this room tonight."
• "I am more concerned about next year's budget than I am about this year's budget. This year, we're seeing the effects of what's going on in our economy...I enjoy living in Wilton because we have great volunteer boards like these who have maintained very tight budgets...but I believe it's time for all of us to look outside the box...because I think we're walking into a period of time where this conversation is going to get even more difficult...I'm asking everyone in this room to think about ways in which we can be more creative."

Lorrie McCabe

• "I feel compelled to speak tonight because I truly feel that the quality of our children's education is at stake."
• McCabe said her son did freshman sports this past year and she was "glad that he had the social experience to complement the academic one."

Robin Paradis

• "My family will definitely support a 5.1 percent tax increase...I know that time are tough, but we're willing to do what we need to do...I feel that whittling away is going to risk the integrity of my children's education."

David Etspack

• "Given the amount of effort and care that these teachers provide our children...I'm certainly supportive of the increase that is given to teachers...they're certainly not going to be earning any bonuses."

James Anderson

• "The most important thing our society does is educate our children...and it's a shared responsibility...I would be willing to pay, happily, for every one of my children from dollar one...but when we begin to cut away things at the margin, it's not special education, it's not the average student...it's the gifted student that suffers the most...this is a disaster because at the end of the day if our society is going to succeed in the future, it will be on the backs of the most talented among us."
• "My second grade son gets a half hour of math enrichment...he brought home a fifth grade math test that he got six out of six on and the look on his face said to me, 'don't take that away.'"

Opposed

Michael Graupner

• "Someone told me that there's a Connecticut state law that prohibits the new school budget from permitting the budget from being less than the year before?" Serenbetz responded that this was, indeed, the case.
• "We have to keep in mind the shenanigans in Washington DC because something and somebody has to pay for that and it's going to come home to roost in Wilton and other towns eventually...my issue with the school budget is that there never seems to be any downward pressure...within this last summer, a lot of us tried to impress upon the leaders of the town that maybe a program for seniors [that would alleviate some of the property tax burden on them] would provide the kind of downward pressure I'm talking about. But that was basically ignored."
• "I think the parents ought to have whatever they want...but if they feel like they would want to pay more property taxes to get what their children deserve, by all means let them do that...the way to do that is to have them take on a bigger burden of money that funds the school system."

Moses Alexander

• "To paraphrase a Middlebrook flyer, 'I want to keep what I have.' I think we all deserve to keep what we have...that's why I think we should keep the mill rate increase at no more than two percent...the real issue here is in the four percent increase in salaries and benefits in the Board of Ed budget."
• Alexander added that he thought perhaps implementing a "pay to play" model for sports would be effective and also wanted to know how Wilton's taxes compared to surrounding towns.
• "The Board of Ed talked a lot about the risks of cutting more programs, but I'd like to hear about the risks of implementing a five percent tax increase."

Marilyn Gould

• "We are now facing an economic situation and a budget year unlike any other. It's not just older folks who are suffering now...our homes have lost significant value, though our assessments don't reflect that new reality, property taxes have nearly doubled...while I applaud the boards for their efforts to control their budgets, a five percent increase in our tax rate is not acceptable...while we can arouse a lot of ire and argument by reducing staff or programs...that's really not going to solve the problem."
• "There is really only one way to avoid these difficult choices and that is by freezing salaries and benefits from the top of the salary scale down to the bottom...I know some unions may be fighting it, but others have accepted the freeze to maintain income rather than lose jobs altogether...while mose of our residents have suffered a loss of income, it is not out of the question to ask town employees to accept a freeze."

Jerry Holdrige

• Mr. Holdrige presented the results of a survey he and a few other community members conducted of their own accord. The survey was sent out to all households in Wilton with a senior resident, paid for by a private group of citizens, and received more than 100 responds.
• There were two questions: rank the five greatest concerns a senior faces in Wilton and name what factors most influence seniors' decisions to move out of Wilton.
• Of the biggest concerns, 75 percent said property taxes, 13 percent said cost of living, and 6 percent said senior services.
• Of the factors for moving, 68 percent said property taxes, 16 percent said cost of living, 9 percent said family living elsewhere, and 3 percent said weather.

Jaqueline Maine

• "I want to see tax increases curtailed because it's the fiscally responsible thing to do in times like these...I don't believe the gloom and doom they broadcast will result if we elect to curtail our spending. We must spend smarter and get creative to position ourselves for the long term."

Frank Dunn

• "Wilton schools have always been great and I think everyone that runs the Wilton schools deserves a round of applause...but right now, with the economy the way it is, that's not the case and this is probably the worst we've seen it in 26 years."

Wilton will hold its public hearing for the Board of Selectmen's budget Thursday night at Middlebrook, also at 7:30 p.m. The Board of Finance will then complete mill rate and budget deliberations on April 8, followed by the annual town meeting on May 4 and an adjourned vote on May 8.