Reprinted from The Trumbull Times © Copyright 2010
February 11, 2010

By Donald Eng

Faced with town revenues far below projections and contractual obligations to town labor groups, First Selectman Tim Herbst said he had a choice: Raise taxes about 5% or cut spending. The deciding factor, he said, was the economic condition of the state and country.

"In this current economy, I simply can't justify increasing the burden on Trumbull taxpayers," Herbst said. "I chose to cut and cut hard."

Herbst presented his 2010-11 budget proposal to the finance board yesterday. His proposal calls for a spending increase of .86% over the current year's $134.5 million package, for a total of $135.7 million.

But funding the new budget would require a tax hike of about 1.95%, from 24.07 to 24.54, assuming the Grand List stays about the same and the finance board does not use the town's fund balance to offset expenses.

"Like all municipalities, Trumbull will have to operate under the constraints of a severe national recession," Herbst said. "Our residents have been hit exceptionally hard. Our fellow citizens are out of work, and some risk losing their homes to foreclosure."

On the town side, Herbst held spending to essentially the same $51 million the various departments received this year. In order to do so, though, he eliminated $250,000 in communications upgrades for the EMS and deferred property revaluation for one year.

He also delayed a mapping program upgrade in the town's Engineering Department and left virtually all the currently vacant positions unfilled.

The school system, which accounts for about 2/3 of the budget, received a similar reduction. The school board had initially requested $86.2 million, an increase of 2.53% over the current year. Herbst reduced that amount to $84.7, which represents an increase of just over 1%, or $677,000 more than this year's budget.

When School Supt. Ralph Iassogna presented his 2010-11 proposal in December, he warned that even his proposed $87 million allocation would erode the programs available to Trumbull students. To arrive at his proposed budget, he eliminated 14 positions, including 4.5 teaching jobs at Trumbull High.

During its deliberations, the school board replaced most of the jobs Iassogna cut, but managed to slice the request by about $850,000. Board members accomplished this by allocating stimulus funds to ongoing programs and cutting funds for special education transportation.

Their rationale was that it was better to patch together a budget that gambles on a brighter economic picture next year rather than lose teachers. Instead, they may have to do both.

By his own calculations, Herbst said he arrived at the $84.7 million figure by re-implementing the personnel cuts Iassogna had initially recommended. He then subtracted $850,000, an amount equal to the average surplus the schools have returned to the town over the last three budget cycles.

Revenue shortfall

Compounding the difficulty in presenting a budget that he deemed affordable for the town, Herbst also was faced with a substantial revenue shortfall in the current budget.

The shortfall was a result of numerous factors, including lower than expected investment income and the state reducing education funding to towns midway through the current fiscal year.

Combined with a $15 million reduction in the 2009 Grand List, these factors left a $3 million budget gap in the combined 2009-10 and 2010-11 fiscal years.

"If revenues had remained status quo, the town would be looking at an overall tax increase of about 1%," Herbst said.

But factoring in the lost revenues means that Herbst's budget will require a tax hike of 1.95%, a number higher than he had hoped.

During the election campaign, Herbst had pledged to present a budget that increased taxes below the rate of inflation. But with the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculating that inflation was actually negative last year, at (-.34%,) Herbst had to concede that his goal was unattainable.

"When I made that promise, inflation had been going up about 3% a year over the last decade," he said. "No one foresaw the economy getting this bad."