Budget referendum Saturday, May 28

WINSTED — A referendum on the proposed town budget for fiscal year 2011-12 will be held this Saturday, May 28, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Pearson Middle School.The proposed budget, which was approved by the Board of Selectmen in April, is $30,732,523.The town side of the budget stands at $11,402,127, while the education budget comes in at $18,600,000 — which is $2,820,561 less than what the Board of Education recommended.The proposed amount is below the town’s most recent minimum budget requirement (MBR) of $20,049,466, as estimated by the state in late April.If the budget is passed, members of the school board say that the school district will have a funding shortfall of $1,361,094 below the MBR. The Board of Education filed a lawsuit against the Board of Selectmen and the town on May 2 in Litchfield Judicial Superior Court, which is still pending.In a previous interview, Superintendent of Schools Blaise Salerno said the Board of Education filed the lawsuit because the town is unwilling to fund education at a responsible level.“The reduction [in the school budget] will end up being a hardship for the schools,” Salerno said. “It is our belief that we have to go to court to bring to people’s attention that we are not meeting the needs of students.”In April at the annual budget town meeting, Selectman Ken Fracasso spoke in favor of the budget and cited a declining student enrollment in the school district as a reason for the cut in the school district’s budget.“According to [school building reports], the four school buildings have the capacity of 2,436 students, but right now we have less than half of that in the district,” Fracasso said. “We feel that the school system has super sized themselves more than enough. Therefore, we feel that there needs to be a reduction.” At budget hearings, the selectmen approved various additions to the proposed town budget, including $15,000 to the Board of Selectmen’s contingency budget, $50,000 to the police department for the purchase of two new police cruisers, $18,450 to Planning and Zoning for an update to zoning regulations, $15,000 to the town manager’s budget to be used by the Economic Development Committee for marketing, $26,824 for a full-time fire marshal, along with $24,795 in medical benefits and $55,000 to pay for crossing guards.