Reprinted from The Trumbull Times © Copyright 2010
January 28, 2010

By Donald Eng

It has been an eventful first few weeks in office, but First Selectman Tim Herbst told the Trumbull Taxpayers Association he is "confident" he will be able to deliver his promised $1 million in cost savings by March.

"We're working hard, and as you've probably read in the papers, we're attacking the low-hanging fruit," Herbst told a mostly supportive crowd of about 65.

Specifically, he cited eliminating the free health care perk for 39 town employees and the drive to cut into the number of town-owned cell phones.

The main purpose of the meeting was to address the town's 2010-11 budget and solicit feedback from the group. Herbst said several potential problems have popped up, mostly due to the state of the economy and the state's fiscal woes.

"The budget right now has a $1.7 million shortfall on the revenue side," he said. Much of that is due to a $500,000 shortfall in interest income. Last year the town budgeted for more than $800,000 in interest income. But Treasurer John Ponzio has since reported the actual amount will be around $300,000.

Lower than anticipated state funding for the Education Cost Sharing program and special education programs also contributed to the shortfall, as did a trend of very small Grand List increases the last few years.

To attack the problem, Herbst told the crowd he has proposed six unpaid furlough days for town employees and has required that department heads investigate ways to consolidate jobs before filling vacant positions.

He also has asked school employees to take one furlough day and for teachers to forego their contractual "step" increase this year. The teachers would still receive their annual pay hike. Step increases are given as teachers gain experience until the teacher reaches a maximum "step."

Herbst said requesting the union to forego the step increase was the best way to go because it did not affect all the teachers. Specifically, teachers nearing retirement would still receive their contracted increase, and teachers losing their step would still receive a pay increase, though a smaller one than contracted.

The alternative, he said, was job losses. The furlough plan received a cool reception, he said, but not an outright rejection.

School questions

The majority of the questions from the audience focused on the Trumbull High School renovations. Specifically, many people wanted to know if reducing the project's size would jeopardize the state's reimbursement. Currently, the school is in Phase I of a planned "as new" renovation. Herbst has said reducing the project's cost was a possibility if it could be done without having the state reduce its planned funding.

Phase 1 was originally slated to include a new swimming pool in a separate free-standing building. But the state pulled its funding for that part of the project over questions regarding whether the pool was a school addition or a community facility. Loss of the state money eventually led to the town dropping that part of the renovation.

Several audience members wanted to know if it made more sense to leave the $5 million that had been earmarked for the pool in place, pending a final decision on what to do. Herbst answered that he opposed allocating funds to a project when there was no clear understanding of what the project would entail and who eventually would use it. In addition, he said there has been no cost-benefit analysis to date of related expenses to renovate the existing pool at Hillcrest.

Should the town eventually decide to build a new pool, it should do so only after analyzing the potential cost of transforming the Hillcrest pool into an auditorium or additional classroom space, he said.