Hoping to see more control over spending in both the Board of Education and Board of Selectmen budgets next year, the Board of Finance on Tuesday, Nov. 11, unanimously approved recommending a budget guidance of 3.6% for each — a half-percent less than what the BOE and BOS had hoped to hear.

It was the last official action taken by the current iteration of the BOF under Chair Matt Raimondi, albeit with the three newly elected members unofficially sitting in on the discussion in anticipation of their Dec. 1 start date.

On Oct. 14, both the BOE and the BOS presented respective preliminary budgets representing a 4.1% increase over each current operating budget. 

  • Superintendent Kevin Smith presented the BOF with a $100,935,938 school budget that represented a 4.1% increase over the current $96,968,334 budget. That current budget represents a 4% increase over the previous BOE budget from FY 2025.
  • First Selectman Toni Boucher presented the BOF with a $38,648,104 town-side budget that represented a 4.1% increase over the current $37,130,471 budget. That current budget represents a 3.65% increase over the previous BOS budget from FY 2025.

Tuesday evening, after hearing bullet-point pitches from Boucher and BOE Chair Ruth DeLuca in support of projections that had been given to the BOF, the financiers shared their individual assessments with one another.

Both current and newly-elected BOF members agreed that it would be prudent and practical to utilize the knowledge and experience of the sitting board to issue guidance before the departure of three outgoing members. Opinions, however, differed on how and where to moderate the projected increases in those preliminary numbers.

There was general agreement, however, that the resultant mill rate increase needed to be kept below 3%. Were each budget to be passed with a 4.1% increase, it would result in a 3.49% increase to the mill rate. If each budget were to be passed at the recommended 3.6% increase, the mill rate increase would be closer to 3%.

“It strikes me that [for] the people that I speak with in town, there is a real push back once you get to 3% and above,” BOF member Tim Birch said. “They feel like they’ve had some tough tax years … and they’re sort of looking to us to give them a soft landing this year.”

Like some others, Birch expressed trepidation regarding the BOS budget, primarily because the interim Chief Financial Officer — and Town Hall at large — is still struggling to close the books on not just Fiscal 2025, but Fiscal 2024 as well.

“I think it is an incredible challenge to develop a budget over next year when you don’t have any faith in the actuals … I do not feel comfortable in moving any line items forward if I don’t have any faith in what the line items say,” Birch said.

Likewise, he said that the downward trend in enrollment in the Wilton Public Schools, with around 100 less students enrolled this fall than had been projected, was not just a one-off event.

“The trend is what the trend is,” Birch said, “and the trend is not a blip … It’s a downward trend in enrollment and that should have some repercussions in terms of their budget.”

BOF member Sandra Arkell, who is stepping down from the board, agreed.

“I do think we need to look at enrollment,” she said. “It’s down 100 … I do (agree) that the Board of Ed might need to tighten up the budget a little bit.”

Arkell also expressed concern about the development of the BOS budget because of missing information.

“I’m having a real hard time with where we are, given the fact that we never got final numbers last year … To me, that’s Priority One right now. We need to get the Board of Selectmen records fixed ASAP,” she said.

“I know that’s a different conversation that the new board will have to have [but] I believe the Board of Selectmen [budget] has to be contingent on the books and records getting clean up,” Arkell said.

BOF member Rudy Escalante concurred.

“We’re not in control of what we have, so that’s not a good place to be at the moment,” he said.

Escalante also suggested a reduction to the school-budget increase.

“There should be an ability to make small cuts to the budget to decrease the increase,” he said, given the enrollment decrease. “We’re talking about decreasing the increase. We’re not talking about cuts.”

Interestingly, BOF Vice Chair Stewart Koenigsberg, who is departing the board after eight years — during several of which he was a tough critic of school spending — on Tuesday evening was more liberal in his assessment of the school budget, indicating he didn’t see the enrollment drop as having much significance. 

“I do not see that as a particularly noteworthy decrease,” he said, explaining that he also didn’t want to see Wilton spending much less on its schools than comparable towns in the area. Referencing data emphasized by DeLuca, Koenigsberg pointed to per-pupil spending comparisons with schools in Wilton’s District Reference Group — and Wilton’s bottom position on the list as the district that spends the least per student.

“If we start becoming an outlier, I think that’s a problem,” he said.

Regarding the town-wide budget, he said that there was enough historical data from years past to help arrive at sound numbers. “We don’t have perfect data, but having said that, we’ve got years of history. We have some understanding of what’s going on,” he said.

Chair Matt Raimondi, who will not be returning to the BOF, said he also felt the school budget increase could be smaller, given the enrollment drop.

“I don’t want to say this, unfortunately, but I do think we need to come off of that a little bit,” he said of the 4.1% increase projected in the school budget.

He noted, however, that guidance is just that — guidance — and that the voters could support a higher increase if they so choose.

Raimondi indicated favor with a higher BOS increase.

“There are some cost pressures coming their way,” he said, including personnel contract increases and new hires.

“I would say we hold them to …4.1%,” he suggested.

With Arkell, Koenigsberg and Raimondi leaving the BOF, the three new members who were just elected to replace them are former Planning and Zoning Commissioner Eric Fanwick, outgoing Selectwoman Kim Healy, and newcomer Kari Roberts.