State budget woes leave town unsure
http://www.newbritainherald.com/articles/2009/07/01/news/doc4a4c103a9056d189851451.txt
Wednesday, July 1, 2009 9:54 PM EDT
By RALPH HOHMAN
STAFF WRITER
SOUTHINGTON — Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s veto of a state budget has left administrators here and in other towns unsure of how much help they can expect in the fiscal year that began Wednesday.
“I’m hopeful that the governor will, by executive order, follow what she’s done for the state agencies,” town manager John Weichsel said. “She’s basically telling them to go forward for a month.”
Rell returned an unsigned budget Wednesday to Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, saying in an accompanying letter that the General Assembly’s plan would tax and spend too much, and was “exactly the wrong move at exactly the wrong time.”
Connecticut towns set their municipal and education budgets based on expectations of state money. Now they have to wait and see how much they’ll receive as the governor releases payments by executive order.
According to minutes of the Town Council’s June 22 meeting, Chairman John Barry said that with local tax bills going out there was “some apprehension” over the lack of a budget.
At that same meeting, Weichsel said that if there were to be significant cuts in municipal aid or Education Cost Sharing Grant, the possibility existed that “you might actually have to send out a second tax bill.”
Weichsel said Wednesday his most immediate concern was state funding of Town Aid Road Grants and the Local Capital Improvement Program.
When it comes to road repairs, Weichsel said, “That time period, of course, is critical. Now is the time when the Highway Department wants to do that. So if there’s a delay, that would be very bad.
“But I’m kind of counting on Gov. Rell to authorize payment at least on last year’s schedule,” Weichsel said.
Superintendent of Schools Joseph Erardi said the impact of working without a state budget “is minimal, if any at all,” at least for now.
Erardi said the school system’s long-term concern is over how much the state would provide in a Special Education Excess Cost Grant and a transportation grant.
“This is something that the business office and my office are following daily,” Erardi said.
On the other hand, he said, “I sense that the ECS is in a safe place.”
© Copyright 2009 The New Britain Herald, a Central Connecticut Communications Property.
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