BET Approves $427.8 Million Budget

A proposed $427.8 million budget for Greenwich town, school board and capital projects got unanimous approval by the Board of Estimate and Taxation Thursday night.

The budget—which is about 6 percent more than the current budget of $404.3 million—now goes to the Representative Town Meeting for review and an approval vote in April, carries a 2.75 percent tax increase. The mill rate would rise to 10,675 mills per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

The town portion of the budget totals $367.8 million; the Board of Education $140.9 million; capital improvement projects, $63.1 million.

It took about 2 1/2 hours for the 12-member BET to run through various accounts and to discuss funding options. Among the key discussion points, was a move by Democrat Mary Lee Kiernan to borrow $20 million for the Central Fire House construction project over 20 years rather than issue a bond anticipation note spread over 5 to 7 years.

Kiernan and her fellow Democrats argued the town should take advantage of low interest rates to spread the borrowing costs over several years rather than saddling residents with what they said would be short-term higher costs. Kiernan said, "It would be prudent and rational to smooth our funding of the Central Fire Station over 20 years ... to help reduce budget pressure. It will spread the burden over present and future taxpayers. It should more closely match funding over the life of the asset."

Democrat Jeffrey Ramer argued that by bonding one project over 20 years rather than continue town practice of short-term borrowing for capital projects, "is a fairly gentle way for this town to embrace this modest cultural change."

Budget Committee Chairman Joseph Pellegrino countered, "This will be a substantial change to the way we fund our capital budget. You are presenting this without any financial model, analysis or facts for this board. I am not going to pass down to my children, a debt level that doesn't make sense when this town has the ability to fund in five years. It's the lowest and most efficient means of financing capital projects."

The 25-minute discussion ended with a tie vote of 6-6, along party lines, killing the proposal.

The total budget plan for 2013-14 was reduced by $3.1 million—the amount of money originally planned for the MISA (Music Instruction Space and Auditorium) project at Greenwich High School. At the request of Greenwich Board of Education Chairman Leslie Moriarty, the BET excluded the allocation as the board of education continues deliberation on what to do with the project.

Coupled with the need to remove contaminated soil discovered on the Hillside Road campus during initial construction in 2012, bids for the project received last week were several million dollars more than originally planned. According to BET Chair Michael Mason, the education board is to hold a special meeting April 10 to review its options before making a funding request to the town.

Once that's decided, the Board of Ed will present its plan as an interim spending request, Mason said.

Another major issue prompting discussion was a failed proposal from William Finger, a Democrat, to cut the tax collector's salary from the proposed $94,197 for 2014 with a 2 percent increase to $96,081 for 2015. (Details on that issue, can be found here.)

The BET approved a raise for the first selectman—$131,187 for 2014 and $133,210 for 2015.