Reprinted from The Trumbull Times © Copyright 2010
January 21, 2010

By Donald Eng

Furlough days, scaled back pay increases and a reexamination of the school board's budget proposal are all on the table as First Selectman Tim Herbst aims to bring in his first municipal budget with less than a 1% increase.

In a letter to Trumbull's municipal and school unions, Herbst has proposed having each town employee take six unpaid furlough days over two years and each teacher take one furlough day and forgo a contracted step increase in their base salary. The two moves combined, if the unions approve, could save the town more than $1.5 million.

"I have explained to the school board and the town unions that I do not want to lay off teachers and town workers, but this is the toughest budget year we are likely to have, and we must very aggressively enact cost-saving measures wherever possible," Herbst said.

Herbst will make an informal presentation of his ideas for budget reductions next Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the library during a meeting of the Trumbull Taxpayers Association. He said he also would offer some input on the state of the school budget. At about 65% of the town's total annual spending,Currently, the school budget proposal calls for a 2.54% increase. But School Supt. Ralph Iassogna's original proposal called for a 3.53% hike and eliminated 4.5 teacher positions and numerous maintenance secretarial jobs. The board reinstated most of the positions, and allocated federal stimulus funds to cover more of the shortfall, a move resulting in what some call a potential "funding cliff" next year.

Herbst said the town could possibly avoid the cliff because the current teacher contract expires after this year, and other towns have successfully bargained lower salary increases.

"Hypothetically, that cliff could take care of itself if we can manage to do the furlough days and forgo the step increase for the teachers who are eligible," Herbst said. Those changes, plus possibly reinstituting the staff cuts that Iassogna recommended, could bring the school board budget proposal down to about 1% increase, Herbst said.

"If everyone gives a little, and we can allocate those savings to the general fund, I think it is feasible to have a municipal budget next year that increases expenditures less than 1%," he said.