The views stated here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors of this newspaper.
The Town Budget document found on the Town of Haddam website uses terms which have very specific meanings. The numbers in the Haddam News article and those in the Haddam Bulletin article by Alan Aronow are all correct. But in both articles precise terms have not been used. This matters because which numbers and how they are described can easily be used to influence people to support the budget and the bond proposal or to reject it.
The HB headline “Town Budget Review. Government (+11.2%) and School (-1.5%)” would imply that town spending is out of control and school spending has finally seen a decrease. So what is the truth?
The “Total Town Budget” as used by the BOF is $8,271,371 and is an increase of 11.2% ($834,050) but this does not factor in the RSD #17 impact on the budget. So this is not the full picture. And we all know that the RSD#17 represents 75% of our town taxes.
To get to the “Total Budget” the impact of RSD#17 must be included in the calculation. Haddam’s portion of the RSD#17 budget this year has gone down because of a shift in the school population favoring Haddam. This change (-$378,065) has to be subtracted resulting in the “Total Budget” of $32,424,808 and is an increase of $455,985 or a 1.43% increase. This is a very different picture from the impression of the HB headline.
The 1.3% increase in town operations referred to in the Haddam News article of May 16 is the same number used in the HB article in the chart on Page 11 where it is labeled as “Government Operations.” The point here is simply that Haddam’s government is a lean operation.
So the next important question is how do we arrive at a zero mil rate increase.
We need to examine the BOF “Proposed Revenue Budget”
- “Total General Property Tax” revenues are projected to be up $123,268 presumably as a result of increases in the Grand List
- “Total Intergovernmental” revenue is projected to be up $234,717. This is income from the state of CT
- “Total Charges for Services” are projected to be up $59,000
- “Interest Income” is projected to be up $39,000
- These projected revenue increases add up $455,985
- “Total Revenue From All Sources” is 32,424,808 which matches the “Total Budget”
So the BOF has a balanced budget because the increase in expected spending is matched by a projected increase in revenue resulting in a zero mil rate change.
I hope this answers the budget questions.
RSD #17 spending is up 1.6% but Haddam’s portion of that is down 1.5%. This matters because every yearly increase in RSD#17 spending must by state law be at least matched or increased the following year so Haddam will be impacted in all subsequent years.
Ed Munster, 7/19/19
Editor’s Note: Ed Munster is the President of the Haddam Civic League, the parent organization of Haddam-KillingworthNow.com and Haddam News.
