Video: Aldermen Approve $112 Million Budget With Slight Tax Decrease

Despite the tough economy, and people everywhere struggling to make ends meet, residents here will actually get a slight tax break next year, thanks to a new budget passed Thursday night.

The Board of Aldermen unanimously approved a $112 million budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year during its regular monthly meeting held at City Hall.

Mayor Mark A. Lauretti was pleased to be able to slightly reduce taxes for residents, especially at a time, he said, when so many are financially hurting.

“I’m thrilled to be able to be in position where we could lower taxes for our residents in these every difficult economic times,” Lauretti said. “This is something we have been working toward for the last 20 years. It was a campaign promise I made 20 years ago to provide tax stability year in and year out for our residents. I don‘t think there‘s any better time than now to offer that stability.”

The budget actually lowers Shelton’s tax rate from 18.61 mills to 18.57 mills, which officials said will mean a decrease of about $8 in next year’s tax bill for the average homeowner with a home assessed at about $200,000.

Aldermanic President John Anglace said while so many other communities are seeing their taxes on the rise, Shelton has been able to freeze taxes for the past three years in a row, and with this budget passage, actually lowers them next year. Anglace attributed that to steady fiscal progress made over the last 20 years during Lauretti’s administration.

“This is the fourth consecutive year where a poor economy has prevailed; yet we have a record of fiscal progress over the last 20 years,” Anglace said. “The big surprise is that we are probably the only municipality in Connecticut that froze taxes for three years, and are now about to lower them.”

As far as the Board of Education budget, the aldermen stuck with the $63.7 million figure that Lauretti, as well as the tax board, settled on, allocating a $600,000 increase to the schools. While it was not the $1.9 million increase that the school board initially sought, Superintendent of Schools Freeman Burr said the allocation will not force the district to lay off any people. And that’s a very good thing, he said, considering the board had to lay off 91 people last year because of the budget being severely under-funded.

Burr said the board’s finance subcommittee is slated to meet Wednesday to discuss how to make the $63.7 million work for the school system. He is hoping to be able to restore several of the tutors that were axed during last year’s round of budget cuts.

The school board, under the newly approved city budget, will not have to incur unemployment costs, as the city opted to include some $250,000 to cover those costs for the district, as it did last year.

Anglace lauded Burr and the board’s negotiating team in coming up with a recently arbitrated three-year teachers contract, that Anglace said “resulted in a very frugal settlement.” Burr said that contract negotiations resulted in about $650,000 in savings.

The aldermen, over the last two weeks, did make some changes to the overall budget that the tax board had recommended to them for approval. For example, the aldermen restored more than $33,000 for city youth programs that the tax board eliminated, as well as put back $2,000 for the Barnum Festival parade; $4,500 for Girl Scouts and $4,500 for Shelton’s annual contribution to the Valley Council of Governments.

As far as reductions, the aldermen decreased the fire department’s clothing allowance by $5,000, because Anglace said that money for items, like turnout gear, are bonded through an agreement the city has with the department. Other decreases the aldermen made from the tax board’s recommended budget included an $80,000 decrease in bundle billing and a $15,000 reduction for fire alarm maintenance.  

Download the movie