Mayor John Harkins and his administration have proposed a Town of Stratford budget increase of 6.5%, or $11.5 million, for fiscal year 2015.
Under this plan, which is now for the Town Council’s consideration and action, the town’s expense budget would increase 9.5%, or $9.2 million, and the schools budget would increase 2.4% or $2.3 million.
The total proposed budget increase would bring the Town’s expenses to $204,182,610. The mill rate, which is used to determine property taxes, would increase 5.7% and become 36.62.
Property taxes on a Stratford home with a market value of $300,000 and an assessed value of $210,000 would increase $416, from $7,274 to $7,690 under the proposed spending plan.
The Board of Education had requested an increase of $5.2 million.
Increasing the schools budget by the proposed $2.3 million would cover increases in wages, benefits and capital projects, according to the mayor. He said also that some more time should be given to the new superintendent of schools to see how her initiatives may improve the system with more expenditure increases.
A major portion of the increase on the town side of the budget is debt service on the 2013 Pension Obligation Bond program approved by the Town Council last May. The cost for that budget line is $12.9 million.
Comparing costs of pension deposit, debt service on 1998 Pension Obligation Bonds and debt service on 2013 Pension Obligation Bonds in 2014 with the 2015 proposal shows a net increase of $7.5 million year to year.
Costs related to pensions and Pension Obligation Bonds are in the proposal at $23.4 million, which is 22% of the Town’s $106.3 million expense budget, separate from the schools’ section.
The town’s costs for General Obligation Bonds for capital projects is shown to decrease $1.5 million from $10.9 million in 2014 to $9.4 million in 2015.
In his budget presentation Harkins points out that the proposal maintains all current services and requires no personnel layoffs.
The Grand List, the sum total of real property and business personal property, increased $29 million in 2013, which adds an estimated $750,000 in revenue to the town.
“This budget is based on what the taxpayers can afford,” Harkins told The Star. The Board of Education “wants more, but now, with the current economy and budget constraints, is not the time to give more.”
“This is a hard budget,” Harkins said. “We try to stay flat,” but mandatory increases from areas including health care, utilities, education and social services make that difficult.
When asked if he was able to find areas in the budget where expenses could be reduced, the mayor and Chief Administrative Officer Steve Nocera pointed to energy costs, largely resulting from recent investments in new systems.
More savings or expense reductions “could happen,” the mayor said, noting that it is now up to the Town Council to decide what budget amount to approve.
Harkins said he and his team are always looking for ways to do things differently in order to reduce expenses. They have looked at the costs related to trash and recycling pick-up. He said continuing with technological upgrades may help to keep reduce costs, and the administration is weighing options to regionalize or privative services — the water treatment plant in particular. Selling the facility to a municipality region, selling to a corporation and having area towns join Stratford in a new municipality region are all being considered.
Harkins mentioned that moving the Recreation Department from Short Beach to Birdseye Complex just created an opportunity to use the Short Beach space for a possible restaurant tenant.
Stratford Town Hall