Tolland Waits to Hear About State Revenue

The state may have an approved its biennium budget earlier than anyone can remember in the recent past, but municipalities remain in as much limbo, or even more, than they have in previous years in terms of wondering how much in state aid will be delivered.

Last week, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy he would have to eliminate 4,742 positions and cut $545 million from the first year (2011-12) of the two-year state budget to make up for a $1 billion gap. Another $1 billion would need to be eliminated from the second year (2012-13) of the state budget, with some of that savings already being realized from the state jobs eliminated in the first year.

Then on Friday, May 13, the governor and the state union leadership announced they had struck a deal.

The deal would mean that $1.6 billion in cost savings over the life of the two-year state budget would come from various agreements with the state unions. The remaining $400 million over those two years would come from “a mix of additional spending cuts and existing budgeted revenues,” according to a .

It’s that remaining $400 million and the fact that the state union rank and file members have yet to ratify the agreement that has municipal officials, including those in Tolland, waiting for information.

“The towns have been anticipating and reacting the best they could. They’ve tightened belts, reduced staff… this is just unchartered territory and there is a great deal of fear at the grass roots and community level,” Bart Russell, executive director of the Connecticut Council of Small Towns, said last week.

Tolland Town Council Chairman Frederick Daniels said that on the governor’s pledge to protect municipal aid, town officials have based the , in part, on the currently proposed state revenue, which is primarily level funded.

“I’m hoping he can find a way to do to that because if not it will fall directly on the property taxpayers,” Daniels said, adding that the recent news of the agreement with the union leadership does provide some hope.

Daniels said if the governor’s “Plan B” budget goes into effect in its entirety (without union ratification) it would change “the whole landscape” of the municipal budget process.

“Not knowing this is a greater magnitude than what we’ve ever faced by far,” Daniels said of the potential loss in state aid.

Without union ratification, some of the major grants in jeopardy include the town aid road funding, money from the payment in lieu of taxes fund and a disbursement from the Mohegan-Pequot grant.

However, the most significant loss would be to education. For the past two years the state has used federal money to plug a funding hole equal to more than 14 percent of the state Education Cost Sharing grant. That federal funding has run out and according to Malloy’s revised budget the state would not make up for that lost funding.

While the TAR, PILOT and casino grant money is used for capital and infrastructure improvements, the ECS funding is part of the town’s operating budget.

Last week Superintendent of Schools William Guzman said the loss of 14 percent of state ECS funding to Tolland would be “devastating.”

Monday afternoon, Daniels said the town could take some solace in the announcement that the governor and the union leadership had come to an agreement, but that officials and residents must still “hold our breath to some extent until we actually see that the union rank and file will do.”

“If the unions do indeed agree and that means our funding from the state is left intact it certainly is very good news. My hope is that the voters will feel a little more comfortable going forward with the local budget now,” Daniels said.

Daniels said the Tolland Town Council has not discussed what would happen if the town has an approved budget and does not receive as much as anticipated in state aid.

Editors Note: The number of state employee positions projected to be eliminated was corrected at 8:30 a.m. on May 17 to reflect the accurate amount.