Budget Guidance Sparks Tension Between Wilton BOF and BOS

Last night, the Board of Finance responded to sharp pushback from a majority of the Board of Selectmen, who earlier this week publicly criticized the BOF’s 3.6 % budget guidance as ‘outdated’ and unrealistic — even as the BOS works on a proposed FY’27 budget reflecting an 8.14% increase.

Three selectmen continued to weigh in during the BOF meeting’s public comment period: two reiterated their objections to the guidance and the process behind it, while a third urged the board to stand by its previously adopted target.

Chair Tim Birch opened the Thursday, Feb. 19, BOF meeting by sharing a reserved comment about the recommended budget guidance that was approved by the last iteration of the BOF.

“I’m sure that everyone has either listened to the Board of Selectmen meeting of this week or have read some of the remarks regarding guidance and I wanted to sort of clarify from my perspective the issues around guidance and the 3.6% increase,” Birch said.

“That was initially proposed and adopted by the last Board of Finance in November,” he said. “It wasn’t arbitrary or subjective. It was based on looking at the anticipated growth in the grand list and the sentiment that we got from the public to keep an increase in taxes to 3% or less.”

At the Feb. 17 BOS meeting, selectmen expressed their disagreement not just toward the BOF’s recommended number, but also were critical of the process in general. Selectman Rich McCarty called the practice of BOF budget guidance outdated and said he saw nothing about it in the Town Charter.

The lone dissenter was Selectman Matt Raimondi, who was chairing the BOF last November when it gave that budget guidance of a 3.6% increase each to the BOS and to the Board of Education. The BOE subsequently came back with a budget that meets that guidance, while the BOS is currently grappling with an as-yet finalized budget that represents a 8.14% increase over the current year’s operating budget.

During Thursday’s BOF meeting, Second Selectman Ross Tartell was the first to call in to the meeting, stating that too much attention was being given to the long-term picture in terms of updates and maintenance, versus the operational needs of running the town, which he said have been neglected.

“We have not invested in maintenance,” he said. “We have not invested properly in the operational excellence of our town, and we have not invested well in the things we need to bond, so we need to balance the operating capital and the long-term bonding capital.”

“Our operating expense has taken a hit in terms of the rate of inflation and what we need to carry it forward,” Tartell said. “The number of people who are in the town side are less now than they were 10 years, yet the demands have grown.”

He said that the data does not necessarily support that the town “doesn’t have an appetite” for a higher tax rate in order to fund a higher operating budget. He said that each year there has supposedly been a reason to keep the budget low, but opined that the grand list would grow significantly and that the town should take advantage of that to “get our operational house in order.”

Selectman David Tatkow, who said earlier this week that budget guidance felt like “an artificial constraint” that he didn’t believe was grounded in anything analytical, took it one step further during his public comment on Thursday night, describing what he indicated would be a nominal tax increase required to fund the BOS budget as it currently stands.

“If you listen to the last [two] Board of Selectmen meetings … you saw public servant after public servant [describe] in passionate, diligent detail the needs of their department and how those resources and assets would benefit all the residents of Wilton,” Tatkow said. “I don’t personally believe that the Board of Selectmen supported those individuals in thoughtful consideration of their needs and that those of the town should be met with some of the indignation that’s been expressed in this meeting.”

Raimondi, in turn, spoke about what he said was a misperception and misinformation about the budget historically being underfunded, noting that in the last two years it has represented a 50% and 25% increase over the rate of inflation, respectively.

“I’m not sure it’s entirely accurate to say we haven’t invested in the operating budget of the town,” he said, “including, by the way, debt service we’ve increased … Over the last decade we’ve had over $100 million of bonds that have been passed.”

“My advice would be try separate the data from some of the rhetoric that’s out there,” Raimondi said.

Other members of the public chimed in as well during BOF public comment, including Moses Alexander, who pointed out that the BOE budget was more than twice the BOS budget, so the same 3.6% increase amounted to greater funding for the schools.

“Also, my understanding is that school enrollment is decreasing, and at the same time town population, buildings, needs, are increasing,” he said, “and so that one number I think is a little unfair. I think it needs to be taken into account that while the Board of Education got lots of accolades because they met the guidance number, but perhaps on a per-pupil basis the budget maybe should be going down overall if the school population is shrinking.”

Resident Barbara Geddes lambasted those selectmen who spoke against the budget guidance, including First Selectman Toni Boucher, a Republican who supported the three Democratic selectmen (Tartell, McCarty and Tatkow) in their assessments.

“I really needed to speak tonight to take exception to the several hyperbolic, incorrect and untempered remarks with some of the selectmen the other evening about your role — the role of the Board of Finance,” she said, specifically calling out Tartell for describing the 3.6% increase as “a disaster.”

“In what world is being responsible and thoughtful a disaster?” she said, noting that Tatkow and McCarty could perhaps be given some leeway because they were new.

Geddes also called out Boucher, who was in attendance at Thursday’s BOF meeting but did not share any public comment nor engage with the meeting.

“To top off these scattered rogue remarks was our first selectman who said that there’s an appetite in the public to fix things [ed. note: capital improvements] and bring them up to par,” she said. “First, I’m not aware of any appetite from anyone in our wide circles, especially in this year of reconstructing public trust.”