Reaching for a United Tolland Budget

Tolland residents discussed the pitfalls and sometimes divisive nature of Tolland's budget season at a Friends of Tolland Schools meeting on Monday night, which included input from Town Manager Steven Werbner and Superintendent William Guzman.

Participants generally wanted more information on how the budget process is completed, but also wanted to know why the budget can so often be perceived as "Steve's budget" versus "Bill's budget."

Werbner explained that once the superintendent and board of education put together a budget that they believe is needed to properly fund the Tolland education system, he works their projected numbers in with the 15 to 20 budgets submitted by other town departments.

"I put all those needs together in terms of expenditures, and then I put the revenue side in," Werbner said, explaining that his final recommended budget numbers directly reflect what he knows the town can afford (based off of the grand list), as well as what numbers have historically passed at Tolland referendums.

"Since I've been here, the difference between what the Board of Education feels that they need and the number that I feel is fiscally sound to pass on to the community to referendum, it's a startling difference between those numbers," Werbner said.

Local leaders, including town council and board of education members, helped illuminate the difficulties of funding Tolland's municipal and educational needs, especially during a period of relatively small growth in the tax base.

Werbner handed out a sheet detailing essential budget information. He explained that expenditures for the board of education have averaged an increase of 2.6 percent, while the town grand list has only grown an average of 1.2 percent since the 2007-2008 fiscal year.

"One point two percent of grand list growth is equivalent to a little less than $400,000," Werbner said, adding that building permit fees and other costs can reduce that amount to only $250,000 in revenue for the town. The town's mill rate has averaged a .95 percent increase in the last five years, according to Werbner.

At the same time, Werbner said that the state-funded Education Cost Sharing grant has been frozen at a stable $10,759,283 since the 2010-2011 fiscal year, therefore limiting an essential source of revenue for schools.

"I see no evidence, if I were to present a five percent budget, that that would be acceptable to the community as a whole," Werbner said. He added that he is going to aim for a tax increase of one to three percent this budget season.

Guzman said that he makes every effort not to cut programs affecting students, despite what numbers pass in the referendum.

"As a general blanket statement, any account that doesn't affect kids, we go there first," he said. However, he added that sometimes, those accounts are cut. For example, the district does not fund JV sports at the high school level or middle school sports, making Tolland a . 

And the cuts have been even more drastic in previous years. For a time, the middle school was without a world language department, and Guzman said the district cut 22 positions, 15 of them teaching positions, during one particularly difficult budget year.

Participant Gary Lotreck summed up the town's budget difficulties with a call for better informed voters who can understand the financial limitations created by multiple referendums.

"People have to understand that what they vote for on a budget is what they're willing to accept," Lotreck said, explaining that if voters choose to pay less in taxes, there is an inevitable decline in the level of town services.

In general, the participants called for more concise budget information and a call for voters to become familiar with the implications of the proposed budgets. Detailed budget information is posted on both the town Web site and board of education Web site, but one participant said that the onslaught of information is less helpful than an explanation of what the numbers truly mean in everyday life.

"It's not so much transparency, but it's implication," a participant said, calling for more meaningful information for voters.

And most importantly, the group asked for unity during an often contentious time.

"Language: it's our budget," participant Robert Rubino said. "Let's begin with our budget."