FY 18 Budget Prioritizes Stability and Services
Next week I will be presenting my proposed budget for the Fiscal Year beginning July 1, 2017 to the Town Council for consideration. This proposal will form the basis for the final budget to the Council. I have worked hard this year, and in all previous years, together with my incredible staff of directors, to realize savings and maintain services while keeping our costs in check.
The fiscal situation in our state is currently unstable. This budget was constructed against a backdrop of the uncertainty brought about by a State budget that is $1.7 billion out of balance, thereby endangering municipal aid to our community. While we take the Governor’s recently proposed budget into account when estimating how much municipal aid we can expect, the actual aid in last year’s final state budget (passed in May of 2016) proved to be $1.5 million less than the Town projected, resulting in a structural deficit that had to be balanced with an immediate budget freeze and related cuts to the 2016-2017 budget.
While the actions we have taken to mitigate last year’s aid cuts have made up most of the shortfall, the revenue deficit is following us into this fiscal year. Furthermore, we cannot guarantee that the state will not make additional changes before their final budget deadline in early June. Therefore, as we begin our budget deliberations with the Council, we are are carefully monitoring the situation at the State Capitol and in regular communication with our state delegation, who represent our community’s interests in Hartford.
My primary priority with this budget is to continue to deliver a host of municipal services provided by the Town including Education, Public Safety including Police, Fire, and Paramedic response, curbside refuse, bulky waste pickup, leaf collection pickup, elderly and disabled transportation, and tax reductions for senior citizens. My goal is to maintain the high level of service we have provided in the past, while controlling the costs of doing so.
As in past years, we are pursuing this goal in a climate of rising costs for services from our vendors and service providers, including increasing costs for pensions and FICA, higher liability insurance premiums, and higher contributions to regional entities like the MDC. But I maintain my commitment that our budget will be balanced and sustainable, using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), fully funding the town’s pension obligation and town employee and retiree medical payments. Our budget avoids borrowing or use of one-time revenue sources that might get us out of the crisis in the short term, but leave us open to long term risk.
The proposed budget I will present next week is designed with all of these pressures in mind; with a total spending of $185.2 million it represents at 1.9% increase over last year, in accordance with our commitment to keeping our costs low and in balance with our revenue. $56.5 million in budgeted for the town, with $90.4 budgeted for education spending. While we do not yet know what the state will decide, we remain cautiously optimistic and confident that we have done what we can as a Town to keep our budget responsible, sustainable, and forward looking.
In closing, I want to take this opportunity to thank the members of East Hartford’s Legislative Delegation, the East Hartford Town Council, and those from our community who shared their thoughts with me on this budget.