Seeing red as budget season to begin Feb. 25

WINSTED — With the town seeing red in its current fiscal year, the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Education are scheduled to hold two separate meetings next week to address the fiscal year 2013-2014 budget.On Monday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m. at The Gilbert School, the Board of Education is scheduled to hold a hearing on its proposed budget.The school district is proposing a budget of $22,199,590, which is a $750,711 increase from the current budget of $19,958,149.At a previous Board of Education meeting held Feb. 12, Superintendent of Schools Thomas Danehy said, if passed, the proposed budget would represent the first substantial monetary increase for the district in years.“If you go back all the way to 2007-2008, you will notice that school funding has remained at a flat line,” Danehy said. “The district has not had a substantial funding increase over the years. We are due for that. This financial request is well below what is happening in other districts now. It also addresses the needs of the town as demographics change.”On Thursday, Feb. 28, at 6 p.m. at Town Hall, the Winchester Board of Selectmen is scheduled to hold preliminary discussions on the town side of the 2013-2014 budget.The town’s total budget for 2012-2013 is $30,932,241, which is an increase of $199,718 from the previous fiscal year. An increase in revenue allowed the town’s mill rate for the current fiscal year to remain flat, at 25.43 mills.At the selectmen’s meeting held on Tuesday, Feb. 19, Town Manager Dale Martin said coming up with a new town budget will be a challenge.“However, I am confident we will get things straightened out,” he said. “It is going to take some time, but I think we are on the right track.”Interim Finance Director Jane Wall told the board she has been working on details of the proposed budget.“We can’t anticipate any increases in terms of revenue for the new budget,” Wall said. “Obviously, we’re going to have to ask for a revenue neutral increase in the mill rate, which we hope will be approved. Because the town’s grand list has gone down significantly, the town will require a tax increase.”Wall said for the town to remain revenue neutral from this fiscal year’s budget to next fiscal year’s budget, the town may have to raise its mill rate by as much as six mills.Wall told the board she has been investigating expenses for each town account, including the nature and history of prior expenses and potential expenses in the future.“I am also looking at miscellaneous expenses because I have not been comfortable with the way the town has been recording them,” Wall said. “I am not saying these expenses are wrong. However, I would like to see them recorded in a better way so we can understand what we are paying for.”At a previous meeting on Feb. 4, Wall told selectmen she projects by the time the town ends its 2012-2013 fiscal year on June 30 it will have overspent its budget by $387,428.