The following is a submission from the Board of Finance.
Mill Rate & Budget Guidance. During the Nov. 14 Board of Finance (“BOF”) meeting, the Board met and unanimously decided to set mill rate guidance at 4.0%. This guidance is meant to inform the Board of Education (“BOE”) and Board of Selectmen (“BOS”) budget development.
As part of its discussion, the BOF reviewed a presentation which can be viewed online. This presentation was created with a mill rate model designed to show what the mill rate would be depending on different BOE and BOS budgets. The model included the following major assumptions, based on input from the BOS and BOE:
- 5.9% / $5.3 million increase to the BOE budget (unchanged from the last discussion)
- 3.7% / $1.3 million increase to the BOS budget (0.2% / $70,000 decrease from the last discussion)
- $300,000 in capital expenditures for school and town maintenance (new assumption)
- $460,000 increase in debt service ($282,000 decrease from the last discussion)
- No FY2024 budget savings available to reduce taxes. $1.6 million of budget savings was used to reduce the current year’s property taxes. FY2024-FY2025 budget savings will instead remain in the fund balance allowing the town to increase our Moody’s defined ratio of liquid fund balances to revenues from the current 23.5% to at least 25%, which is now required for Aaa bond rated municipalities. (unchanged)
With these assumptions, the mill rate increase was forecast to be 5.4%.
In addition to the above assumptions, the Board also discussed the following in its deliberations:
- Contractual level of union wage increases for both BOE employees (~4.0%) and BOS employees (~3.7%)
- Inflation (currently 3.2%)
- Forecasted changes to school enrollment (decline of 31 children from the current school year) and per-pupil-expenditure trends
- Student / teacher ratio across grade levels and disciplines
- Grand List development (15 projects through FY27)
- Consideration for what may or may not be acceptable to the residents of the town based on previous town surveys, annual town meeting votes, and municipal elections
The Board unanimously decided that while the 5.4% increase would not be a mill rate increase acceptable to the residents of the town, there would still need to be an increase to cover unavoidable expense increases. The Board ultimately decided that a guidance of 4.0% mill rate increase balanced both the needs of the town (an increase at or above contractual wage increases) and the desires of Wilton’s taxpayers.
Residents should note that given that the revaluation is still ongoing, this guidance did not take any changes to the existing grand list into account.
School Buildings 10-year Needs Assessment Report and Funding. The BOF was invited to meet with the BOS and the BOE for a comprehensive review of the needs assessment on Nov. 27. The meeting delved into the specifics of the infrastructure recommendations, the proposed timeline, and funding considerations. You can find the presentations (and a Q&A list from the BOF) listed online.
Based on the presentation, the estimated cost to the town is $105.4 million, net of $26.7 million of state reimbursement grants. While the consultant categorized the work in three prioritized buckets to be completed over 10 years, this work could potentially be spread out over 15 years or longer.
[Then]-First Selectwoman Vanderslice discussed two major funding strategies to finance these improvements: debt financing (in combination with routine infrastructure spending in the BOE and BOS operating budgets) and the creation of a new budgetary line item that can be funded via town development and other mechanisms. Wilton has ample debt capacity over the next several years, as well as a strong pipeline for development which enables flexibility in funding.
The BOF will discuss this topic at the next board meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 12, and will explore the different funding mechanics over the course of the next few months. In conjunction with the BOS and BOE, we will also consider creating a tri-board committee to oversee the different aspects of this spending.
Welcome & Gratitude. Congratulations to Tim Birch, Rudy Escalante, and Prasad Iyer on their election to the BOF. They will all be excellent additions to the Board and we look forward to serving with them.
Thank you to Michael Kaelin, Chris Stroup, and Rich Santosky for their service on the Board of Finance. We are also grateful to Lynne Vanderslice (a former BOF member before her election as first selectwoman) for her leadership. The town is a far better place because of their service.
If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Board of Finance via email.
Matt Raimondi, Clerk
Board of Finance
Once again doing “forecasted changes to school enrollment” despite the fact that school enrollment went up unexpectedly and it didn’t blow up the budget. Also “previous town surveys, annual town meeting votes, and municipal elections”, so they lean heavily on their garbage online poll, pointedly ignore other forms of resident feedback from last year where they didn’t get the results they wanted, likewise ignore the massive shift in votes at the last annual town meeting, and again attach way too much significance to a 4-vote electoral margin.
There’s also some gaslighting potential in the BOF only offering 4% guidance for the overall mill rate increase, and refusing to give any guidance to the BOE specifically; they’ve given themselves wiggle room to turn around and cut the school budget by a lot more. So again I hope that the BOE does not presume any good faith on the BOF’s part regarding that 4%.
I also hope that the “unanimous” vote is not as bad as it sounds, and that the two Democratic BOF members will stand up more forcefully for school budgets when we get down to details; it’s a shame we no longer have an outspoken opposition voice there like Chris Stroup.