TAKE NOTE.  THEN VOTE.  2011

What You Need to Know

to Cast an Educated Vote for the Future of Somers.

Our Community, Our Schools Depend on It.

 

Facts Compiled and Provided by

Citizens for Somers Educational Excellence (CFSEE)

www.cfsee.org

Please share this important information with your friends and neighbors in Somers,

and encourage them to take note.  then vote.

We can be proud of our Town and public schools for many reasons:

 

• Town government has worked hard for many years to keep taxes low.

• Our Town’s Superintendent of Schools, Board of Education, school administrators and teachers have formulated and continually strive to meet the goals set forth in the “Strategic Plan for 2008-2013,” as follows:

o   Link state and local curriculum standards, student assessments, and instruction so that students acquire the knowledge and skills they need to succeed.

o   Integrate technology throughout the district and expand the use of technology in the classroom to sustain a 21^st century learning environment.

o   Maintain school facilities and grounds to provide a safe, healthy environment conducive to learning.

• Many members of our community are fully engaged in trying to minimize the effects of budget constraints on the quality of education our Town’s children receive.

• We enjoy a wonderful quality of life here in Money magazine’s 55^th “Best Small Town in America” (2009):

o   quality public education, including academics, athletics, and arts programs

o   an excellent public library, with holdings, programs and services for every age

o   great playgrounds

o   a low population density

o   dedication to preserving open space (National Conservation Land Trust, state forest lands)

o   significant land devoted to farming (more undeveloped space)

o   a low business density

o   a good supply of reasonably priced housing

o   programs and services for seniors

o   a low crime rate

o   a quiet, small-town feel

But the current financial challenges our Town faces are substantial:

 

Many of Somers’ attractive features create revenue challenges:

• A good school system requires moderate but steadily increasing expenditures to expand and improve staff, programs, services, technology, equipment and the physical plant.

• A low population density and fewer businesses mean fewer homeowners and business owners paying property taxes:

o   only 3,247 residential and five apartment tax accounts in Somers

o   only 110 commercial and 44 industrial tax accounts

• A large amount of land devoted to conservation and farming means a significant portion of land in Somers is either taxed at a reduced rate or entirely exempt.

• Reasonable home prices mean that the assessed values of residential property are lower than in many other Connecticut cities and towns, producing less property tax revenue:

o   median assessed value of a home in Somers is $195,000

 

The Board of Finance has proposed a budget for fiscal year 2011-12 totaling $28,104,522, an overall decrease from last year’s budget of approximately 1.44 percent.  According to the Board of Finance, “the most significant changes to the Town’s revenue are due to decreased grants from the State of Connecticut.”  Specific losses of revenue from the State and federal governments in the Finance Board’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year include the following:

 

Revenue Source	2008-09 Actual	2009-10 Actual	2010-11  Budget	2011-12 Proposed	Revenue Change from preceding fiscal year	Revenue Lost in preceding three fiscal years
State and federal grants:	$9,045,778	$8,139,264	$7,952,961	$7,783,968	- $168,993	$1,261,810
PILOT* grant:	$1,760,230	$1,491,943	$1,323,919	$1,406,661	+ $82,742	$353,569
Total lost revenue:						$1,615,379

 

*  Payment in lieu of taxes:  Made by a state or federal government to compensate a local government for some or all of the tax revenue that it loses because of the nature of the ownership or use of a particular piece of real property. Usually it relates to the foregone property tax revenue.  In Somers’ case, the real property is the land on which the three state prisons are located.

How have our Town Boards responded to these funding reductions?

Expenditures:

The Town Government budget is formulated by the Board of Selectmen, with assistance from the Treasurer.  The Board of Selectmen has demonstrated fiscal responsibility by operating in as lean a fashion as possible, and seeking cost savings wherever possible.  The budget proposed by the Board of Finance for the coming fiscal year—the subject of the upcoming Public Hearing, Town Meeting and referendum—requires the Selectmen to cut $75,000 in spending from what the Selectmen deemed minimally necessary for regular operating expenditures.  This underfunding of the Selectmen’s regular budget follows a zero increase last year and serious cuts in previous years.  This year, after adding extra required expenditures for the State Police and Tax Collector’s budgets, the Selectmen were forced to make the following cuts:

·       $30,000 from the Library budget:  $700 from DVDs, $800 from books, $3,024 from building maintenance; the remainder from electricity, heat and salaries, necessitating closing at 2:00 p.m. two weekdays all year long.

·       $24,000 from the Selectmen’s budget—cuts primarily to adequate funding of Town Pension Fund.

·       $27,000 from the Transfer Station budget—possible cuts in staff/hours of operation. 

In addition to the Selectmen’s budgeting for the regular operating expenses of our Town (excluding schools), they also plan for spending on longer-term, “big-ticket” items, including:  construction, renovation and repair of roads, sidewalks, sanitary or storm drains, sewer lines, public buildings (non-school), dams, bridges, and flood control projects; improvements to public parks and emergency communications systems; and bulky waste and landfill projects.  These are termed Capital Improvement Projects.  The Selectmen’s budgeting for CIP identifies repairs and replacements that must be made to Town vehicles, buildings and equipment on a long-term schedule, to avoid unanticipated failures of these items, which impose sudden and very large expenditures.

In the FY2008-09 budget, the Board of Finance fully funded the Selectmen’s recommended CIP spending, keeping all large-equipment purchases and repairs on schedule.  Since then, CIP has not been funded at nearly the levels that the Selectmen have recommended.  This year the CIP spending requests from both Town government and (separately) the Board of Education total $606,000, for spending on, among other things:  (Town) DPW maintenance trucks, firefighters’ air bottles, Town computer systems, HVAC, parking lots, roofs and fields; (schools) applied engineering programs and computer technology.  The Board of Finance’s proposed budget, however, funds only $98,000 of CIP expenses, only those that pre-existing leases require be paid for.  The BoF’s proposed budget would allow for no more than an additional $202,000 of CIP spending on an emergency, case-by-case basis.  This guarantees a minimum underfunding of more than 50 percent (in dollar terms) of the Selectmen’s and Board of Education’s recommended long-term planning.  Should no emergency failures occur, in essence, none of the CIP requests made by either the Selectmen or the BoE are currently funded in the BoF’s proposed budget.

This year, the Board of Education approved a level-service budget totalling $19,334,317.  This meant that all programs and staffing would remain at their current levels (leaving in place the cut two years ago of ten teaching positions, five at SES and five at SHS).  Superintendent Suffredini and the BoE were able to maintain current staffing levels and programs, and accommodate increasing costs, and still produce a recommended budget in February that increased only $8,200, or 0.04%, over that last FY’s budget.  (View the BoE’s original recommended budget at www.cfsee.org, using the link at the bottom of the page)

The Board of Finance’s proposed budget required the BoE to cut $75,000 from its recommendations.  The BoE revised its budget to reflect a net reduction of $66,800.  According to the Board of Finance. 

The Board of Education was able to arrive at its approved budget based upon three factors:  1) successful negotiations with a number of bargaining units; 2) health insurance costs that remained flat; and 3) the use of the federal Education Jobs Fund grant.  This budget achieves the primary goal of maintaining all programs and services currently offered to our students.  The Board of Education has worked diligently to find ways to provide the best education possible for all students and will continue to explore options as they become available so as to position the district for future challenges during the next few years.

The Education and Finance Boards’ goal of simply maintaining the status quo as regards programs and staffing comes at a time when our Town’s ranking in the state for per-pupil spending on education is near the bottom.  The ranking statistic, the Net Current Expenditure per Pupil (NCEP), measures the following:

NCEP equals the Net Current Expenditure (NCE), which is the amount spent by each town on education, not counting expenditures for school transportation, capital equipment or tuition receipts for out-of-district, divided by the number of students attending public schools in that town (Average Daily Membership).

The most current analysis (2010) of this per-pupil spending shows that of the 166 public school systems in the state (town and regional-district schools), 138 towns and districts spend more money per child on education than does Somers; only 27 rank lower.  For the preceding two years, Somers’ ranking was four places worse.

[See http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/PDF/dgm/report1/basiccon.pdf  for complete rankings data.]

In addition to this dismal per-pupil-spending ranking, Somers is barely in compliance with State regulations that mandate minimum spending levels for education per district.  Cuts to the education budget could easily put our spending on our children’s education below the State’s minimum requirement.

Revenue:

In the Board of Finance’s proposed budget, the lion’s share of our Town’s expenditures are paid for through property taxes—62.29 percent.  This self-reliance provides for stability in our budget planning.  Federal and state revenues come, or don’t come, to Somers with little to no control on our part (again, Somers has lost a total of $1,615,379 in State and federal funding in the last three years).  The money we pay ourselves stays in Somers and works for every member of our community.

Are our taxes high in Somers compared to other towns in Connecticut?  A survey of the most current municipal grand lists and tax rates (for FY 2010-11) shows that of the 169 cities and towns in our state, 55 have mill rates lower than Somers’ rate, and 113 have higher rates.  However, of the 55 cities and towns with lower tax rates than ours, 34 have Grand Lists that exceed Somers’.  So, eliminating towns with a higher tax base than Somers’, we find that only 21 towns in Connecticut have tax rates lower than ours.  [See http://www.ct.gov/sots/cwp/view.asp?a=3188&q=392426 for complete rankings]

How many property owners in Somers are currently on special payment plans because of inability to pay their twice-annual lump sums?  The tax collector currently has 18 signed payment plans with taxpayers.  This represents just 0.0043 (4/10ths of one percent) of the total number of tax accounts in Somers.

How does our current mill rate compare with historical averages in Somers?  The current mill rate is several points below both the average and the median of the past 25+ years, and near the lowest it’s been in the past 25+ years:

 

Grand List Year	Mill Rate	Grand List Year	Mill Rate	Grand List Year	Mill Rate	Grand List Year	Mill Rate	Grand List Year	Mill Rate
1984	22.25	1990	28.30	1995	21.41	2000	25.26	2005	21.01
1985	23.75	1991	30.30	1996	21.91	2001	26.26	2006	21.56
1986	24.50	1992	31.00	1997	22.56	2002	27.26	2007	21.91
1987	25.50	1993	31.00	1998	23.31	2003	28.56	2008	22.11
1988-89	26.50	1994	21.05	1999	24.26	2004	20.25	2009	21.12

 

How can we make up for the sizable reduction in State and federal grant monies that Somers has seen in recent years?

We have two options:  (1) draw from the Fund Balance, also referred to at BoF meetings as reserves; or (2) increase our mill rate.

(1)  Use of Fund Balance.  According to the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, municipal fund balances are essentially “emergency contingency funds.”  From CCM testimony to the State legislature:

Municipalities build up their fund balances over time. More importantly they do so for good reasons. The one most cited is that fund balances preserve a municipality's bond rating, lowering the cost of borrowing for capital needs. Bond rating agencies want to be assured that should any fiscal emergencies arise, sufficient funds are set aside for a municipality to meet its contractually mandated expenses as well as be able to pay its debt service obligations.  Other reasons to maintain a fund balance include unanticipated expenditures for natural disasters, spikes in energy costs, unanticipated employee overtime, unexpected variations in cash flow, unexpected capital expenditures resulting from water main breaks or other infrastructure problems, and more.  These are all one time expenditures for which you do not have to rely on the source on a continuing basis.

The Fund Balance is thus intended as a “savings account” equivalent in household terms, a cushion of easily accessible monies that should not be touched for day-to-day, regular expenses, but held in reserve for emergency, one-time situations that may arise unpredictably.

According to Somers Treasurer Kimberly Marcotte, “For a town our size, auditors would like to see three months’ worth of operating expenses covered by fund balance, which for FY2012 would be around $7 million.”  Our current fund balance is ~$4 million.  The BoF’s proposed budget calls for reducing that amount by another $505,581, which would leave our reserves at a little less than half of the $7 million auditors would like to see.  In our current FY, which ends 30 June, the BoF’s budget reduced reserves by more than one million dollars-- $1,118,738.  These two reductions in fund balance were not to pay for one-time emergency expenses, but as part of the course-of-business budget-planning process.

(2)  Mill rate increase.  We have the opportunity to increase our investment in our community through a small increase in our mill rate.  Consider how, specifically, a mill rate increase would directly affect you.  Here’s how to find out.  

Start with your home’s assessed value. If you don’t know this exact amount, you can find it for free at http://www.prophecyone.us/index_prophecy.php?town=Somers. 

To calculate your yearly property tax, use the following formula: 

(assessed value of property) multiplied by (mill rate), then divide by 1,000.

With a home assessed at $195,800 (the median assessed home value in Somers; corresponds to a market value of $279,714), the formula using Somers’ current mill rate of 21.12 would look like this: 

($195,800 x 21.12) divided by 1,000  =  $4,135

To quickly find out how a mill rate increase would specifically affect you as a homeowner and taxpayer, reference the tax table on this web site, “2011 Tax Table.”  The following is a sample of how specific mill rate increases would affect the taxes on the median-value home referenced above:

 

  .5 MR +                      1.0 MR+               1.5 MR +                  2.0 MR +

total taxes                        $4,233                        $4,332                        $4,429                $4,527

increase per year               + $98                        + $197                        + $294                + $392

increase per week            + $1.88                       + $3.79                       + $5.6                + $7.54

 

The BoF’s proposed budget calls for a mill rate increase of 0.5 mill.  A slightly larger  increase in the mill rate in Somers would yield tremendous dividends for our town, and could obviate the need for further reducing our Fund Balance. 

What can you do?  

Take advantage of your privilege as a citizen to be part of the process, part of the solution.

 

1. Attend the following meetingS; ask questions; speak your part:

• Tuesday, April 26:  Public Hearing, SES Auditorium, 7:00 p.m. to discuss the 2011-12 budget with the BoF and fellow citizens.  This is the last opportunity to express our thoughts on all aspects of the budget.

• Tuesday, May 10:  Annual Town Meeting, Town Hall auditorium, 7:00 p.m. to adopt the proposed annual budget and set the referendum date.

 

2. VOTE.

• Tuesday, May 24:  Vote on the proposed budget.  Town Hall, 6 a.m. - 8 p.m.

• Important to Note:  Should the budget be voted down (i.e., more “no” votes than “yes” votes), the Board of Finance will propose a second, lower budget—which  will require MORE BUDGET CUTS TO EMPLOYEES AND SERVICES, FOR THE TOWN AND THE SCHOOLS.  Additionally, the Town will incur the cost of funding a second referendum.

• Not registered to vote?  You may do so in the Town Clerk’s office at Town Hall.  To make things even easier, you may download the registration form in order to fill it out at home, at http://www.somersct.gov/registrars.cfm (click “Register to Vote” on right side of page).  Call for more info: 763-8211

 

3. Share this information with your friends, acquaintances and neighbors in Somers.