Cheshire Town Council Wrestles With $909,000 Gap in Zero-Mill-Rate Budget Push
Town Council · Meeting of May 13, 2020
CT CHESHIRE — Cheshire Town Council identifies $769,000 in potential cuts but still faces a $909,000 gap in its push for a flat mill rate. At a May 13 budget workshop, the nine-member council reviewed a 17-item list of proposed spending reductions — including leaving a police officer vacancy unfilled, eliminating library page positions, and replacing a full-time town engineer with an outside consultant — but even applying those cuts alongside projected surplus funds, the town remains roughly $909,000 short of holding the mill rate flat for fiscal year 2021. The Board of Education has not yet identified any reductions of its own, and the only school-side adjustment in the current analysis is an $88,000 pension contribution increase.
Council member Lou Todisco warned repeatedly that one-time COVID savings being used to balance this year's budget will create a compounding problem, with debt service on the water treatment plant projected to rise by nearly $2.5 million cumulatively over the following three years. The council set budget adoption for May 28.
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Source: the Town Council meeting of May 13, 2020, reported from the official video recording and transcript.
CHESHIRE — May 13, 2020 — The Cheshire Town Council spent nearly its entire budget workshop Wednesday evening working through a list of 17 potential spending reductions and revenue adjustments totaling roughly $946,000, as members pressed to close a gap of approximately $909,000 still standing between the current draft budget and a flat mill rate for fiscal year 2021.
Town Manager Sean, whose surname did not appear in the transcript, walked the council through a multi-tab spreadsheet showing that even after applying $265,000 in projected town-side savings lapsing into fund balance, $747,000 in net Board of Education surplus funds, and $769,000 in proposed general-government cuts, the town remains about $909,000 short of holding the mill rate flat. The Board of Education has not yet identified reductions of its own; the only adjustment on the school side in the current analysis is an $88,000 increase tied to a mandatory pension contribution being spread over two years rather than one.
The Full Story
Council Chair Peter Talbot opened the meeting with a joint executive session alongside the Board of Education to discuss personnel negotiations, a session that was approved on a unanimous voice vote. When the open budget session resumed, the town manager presented the 17-item list that had been assembled across seven prior department-review workshops.
The list included a mix of proposed cuts — leaving a police officer vacancy unfilled, eliminating library page positions covering 96 hours across six workers, eliminating a recreation position following a staff retirement, and potentially shifting from a full-time town engineer to an outside engineering consultant — as well as spending increases, most notably a $7,000 addition to restore hazardous waste drop-off services through the Regional Water Authority rather than the fewer annual collections offered through the Council of Governments. After debate, council members appeared skeptical of the $7,000 add-back given the scale of cuts being sought elsewhere.
Council member Lou Todisco and others raised persistent concern about the multi-year budget picture. Debt service on the water treatment plant is projected to rise by $758,000 in fiscal year 2022, $879,000 the year after, and $915,000 in the following year, creating what several members called a compounding problem if one-time COVID-related savings are spent down without being replenished.
"We can't deplete fund balance, we can't deplete a lot of these things, in my opinion, because we need to be using some of these excess dollars that we accumulate today to smooth out the issues that we're going to be dealing with over the next few years." [No timestamp available] — Lou Todisco, Town Council member
The town attorney budget drew discussion as well. The law firm had requested $440,000 for the coming year, up from a $350,000 appropriation in the current year and roughly $330,000 in actual spending; the town manager trimmed the request to $340,000, citing a 10-year historical trend and an ongoing request-for-proposals process for legal services. Council member Don Walsh and others asked whether RFP responses might produce further savings; the town manager said preliminary review suggested rates would likely be comparable to what the town currently pays.
Legal notice costs also drew extended discussion. The town manager and a staff member identified as Arnett said the per-line rate paid to the Cheshire Herald has more than doubled and now approaches three times its former level, driving up the town council's own budget line. Walsh asked whether other papers — the Waterbury, Meriden, and New Haven dailies — might be cheaper; staff said those papers are typically more expensive. Council member David Veleber asked whether the Cheshire Citizen, distributed to every household in town, could satisfy the statutory publication requirement; staff said it is used in conjunction with the Meriden Record Journal but noted that statutory requirements for newspaper publication have not yet been replaced by online alternatives.
"Every time we have ordinance reviews, the resulting changes have to be published legally. And so that's what drives the largest change from a budget-to-budget standpoint." [No timestamp available] — Arnett, staff (full name and title not given in transcript)
Council members agreed to schedule additional budget meetings for the week of May 18, tentatively setting a session for Monday, May 18 at 6:30 p.m. and possibly adding a Tuesday session with a later start to accommodate convention conflicts. Budget adoption is targeted for Thursday, May 28, the latest date available under the town's calendar.
"We've got a long way to go — and, as Smokey and the Bandit said, in a short time to get there. And I'm nervous about this one because it has such far-reaching implications for the next few years." [No timestamp available] — Peter Talbot, Town Council Chair
Why It Matters
Cheshire is trying to hold its mill rate flat for fiscal year 2021 against a structural gap that the town manager calculated at roughly $2.6 million at the start of the evening's session. After applying projected surplus funds and proposed town-side cuts, about $909,000 remained unresolved Wednesday night — and that figure does not yet include any Board of Education reductions. Many of the cuts being discussed, including the police officer vacancy and the summer camp cancellation, are one-time savings that will rebound in future budgets, while debt service is set to climb by roughly $2.5 million cumulatively over the next three years. Council members set a hard deadline of May 28 for budget adoption, leaving fewer than two weeks to resolve outstanding questions.
Key Motions & Votes
- Vote: Motion to enter executive session jointly with the Board of Education to discuss personnel negotiations Tally: Approved unanimously
- Vote: Motion to adjourn Tally: Approved unanimously
Source
Cheshire's community access TV: Town Council meeting, May 13, 2020