On the heels of finding some last-minute savings, the Board of Finance unanimously approved a proposed $145,835,795 total operating budget for Fiscal Year 2026 on Tuesday night, Apr. 1. This represents a 3.92% increase over the current $140,339,906 budget.
The proposed Mill Rate levy was set at 24.4054 mills, which would mean a 1.93% increase over the current 23.9435 Mill Rate.
These proposed increases will be brought to Wilton voters at the Annual Town Meeting on May 6.
Without making any changes, the BOF unanimously approved the Board of Education budget request of $96,968,334, for a 4% increase over the current budget of $93.2 million.
Before discussing the budget presented by the BOS, however, BOF Chair Matt Raimondi said $186,171 in savings and corrections in operating expenses had been found, lowering the original BOS budget request of $37,402,033, or a 4.4% year-over-year increase, to $37,215,862, which was a 3.9% increase over the current year.
After Tuesday night’s meeting, Raimondi told GOOD Morning Wilton that the savings were identified as a result of “collaborative effort between myself, Wilton Chief Financial Officer Dawn Norton and members of the town staff… I appreciate Dawn’s expertise, the dedication of the town’s employees, and the Board of Selectmen’s engagement in this process.”
The BOF then went on to further reduce the Board of Selectmen‘s proposed budget by $85,391, approving a total operating budget at $37,130,471, representing a 3.65% increase over the current $35.8 million BOS budget.
Savings that were found included $72,993 in reduced medical benefits costs; $47,206 of over-budgeted Department of Public Works salaries; and a $9,000 reduction in the area of part-time building inspectors.
Also, while the BOS had originally budgeted for two full-time firefighters for a full year, one of them wouldn’t begin work until mid-year, resulting in a savings of $56,972.
While it made the $85,000 cut to the BOS operating budget, the BOF also decided to add $375,000 to the charter reserve account. Once the town has its new infrastructure fund up and running, the intention is to move that money over to get a small head start on the numerous infrastructure projects that lie ahead.
The other significant factor in bringing down the projected mill rate was a Debt Service reduction of more than $1 million, thanks to correcting a mistake.
“The number came down because the bond advisor corrected assumptions on debt paydown, new debt issuance and bond premium amortization,” Raimondi told GMW.
Consequently, Debt Service was reduced by $1,179,222, resulting in an adjusted amount of $9,907,420 for FY 2026 year, which is a 0.7% decrease over the current $9,975,742.
‘Concern’ with Budget Issues Related to Town Hall Staffing and Process
While BOF members offered nothing but praise for the school budget and the BOE for bringing it in within 4% per BOF guidance, Wilton’s financiers mostly expressed a belief that, even with the reduction, the BOS budget could still find a few additional cuts.
“My view is that there’s more work that can be done on the Board of Selectmen budget,” BOF member Tim Birch said, noting that in the coming years, the Town will need to bond significant amounts of money for infrastructure projects.
“I think we have a year now where we can give the taxpayers a little relief,” he said, noting it may be some time before it could happen again.
BOF member Sandy Arkell expressed significant concern over the shortage of staff in the town’s Finance Department, including one position that has remained empty for over 18 months.
She cited several issues relating to the staff being overworked, including recent mistakes made regarding disbursement of the town’s elderly tax credit, as well as process issues relating to an independent audit of the department itself.
Editor’s note: following publication of this story, CFO Dawn Norton reached out to GOOD Morning Wilton to correct Arkell’s suggestion that the Finance Department disburses any elderly tax credit. “It is the tax assessor that issues the elderly credit. Neither the finance [department] nor I have anything to do with that,” Norton wrote in an email.
“Our CFO needs to be appropriately staffed or we’re going to have more issues down the road,” Arkell said, with three current vacancies in a department of six people.
Along with needs for a senior accountant and an accounts payable clerk, the town has been seeking a manager of financial systems and payroll since September 2023.
“Why is an open position open for two years?” Birch asked.
“I have my own opinions on it. I would say it’s internal,” Norton said, indicating that the town was generally offering adequate money for the roles.
Arkell said the vacancies have gone on too long.
“We’ve got to get to the root of why we can’t attract people to the town of Wilton,” she said, suggesting temporary help be brought in.
Arkell also said that the current dual role held by Hollie Rapp, manager of assessing and tax collection for the Town, may be in conflict.
“Those are typically separate roles and probably should be … It is something that just makes me really uncomfortable considering the recent audit report,” she said.
In relation to internal controls, Arkell also questioned whether the town wasn’t budgeting too much each year for the elderly tax credit.
“Why do we continue to budget $1.1 million when we’ve had excess funds?” she said, with hundreds of thousands of dollars available each year for a second disbursement.
“Should that number be lower?” she said. “I don’t know. I need our first selectwoman to be explaining that to us. That’s another example of questions that went unanswered in this budget cycle.”
“This budget cycle was especially stressed … There remain a lot of operational issues and questions that we have,” Arkell said, stating she didn’t think there was adequate time to “deep dive in various areas.”
Where Should Cuts be Made?
Raimondi, who favored the smallest reduction to the BOS operating budget as compared to other BOF members, suggested the compromise of reducing it to a 3.65% increase.
While he said he didn’t want to direct the BOS on where it should make cuts, Raimondi said he saw potential items.
“I do think there are ways they can get to this number … We have the right to be prescriptive (but) I’m not proposing that,” he said.
“I’ll take a stand on what I think should not be touched,” Raimondi said, “and that’s the pensions. The pension contribution cannot and should not be touched.”
“I would toss out a few suggestions,” he said, however, including employee contributions to medical costs and different items in their reserves.
“I would not propose cutting heads … We don’t want to cut services,” he said.
The BOF members appeared in strong favor of adding the two additional firefighter positions requested by the Wilton Fire Department, especially after hearing a large amount of public feedback in support of the initiative, including from the annual budget survey and at the BOF public hearing.
BOF member Rudy Escalante said that, because the population in town is due to increase in coming years, a closer look was needed with regard to the town’s emergency services.
“Wilton’s going to grow by about 10% in the near future … and we now have three senior centers, which really impacts the emergency medical response, and there may be more coming as well,” he said.
Escalante also noted the issue of Georgetown’s fire needs, for which the Town pays a separate $600,000 annually, as well as questions about equipment and response procedures, such as designating a firetruck for each medical emergency.
Raimondi praised all the public officials involved in the budget process.
“I believe that this was a collaborative process from start to finish,” he said. “It had its twists and turns, as it always does, but I’m appreciative of the level of camaraderie that all of our boards have together.”