August 4, 2009

Whopping tax hike next year? City hopes to avoid it.

A month into the new fiscal year, city officials are nervously eyeing a potentially huge gap between rising expenses and shrinking revenues.
Not even counting the Board of Education, which will need at least a few million dollars just to maintain current programs, the city is eyeing a potential shortfall of $8.6 million for its next budget.
That’s enough to hike property taxes “a little over 2 mills right off the bat” next year, city Comptroller Glenn Klocko told a department head meeting Tuesday.
But officials said they have no intention of allowing taxes to go up that much.
Keeping the tax rate down is going to be a long, hard haul, they said, requiring every department to rein in spending everywhere it can and to search for ways to save more.
“I have to believe there are savings throughout the city,” Mayor Art Ward said.
The mayor said the next budget “is going to be, probably, worse than” the long slog that went into delivering this year’s property tax freeze.
Part of the problem for next year is that the city snatched $1.9 million from its rainy day fund to cover expenses this fiscal year, along with another $600,000 for public works vehicles.
The vehicle expense may perhaps prove unnecessary next time around, but the city needs an additional $1.9 million to make up for money it can’t again take out of the emergency account. That has to come from taxes unless spending cuts are found.
Beyond that, city officials anticipate that employee health care costs will rise as much as 12 percent in the fiscal year that begins in July 2010. To pay for it means another $2 million from the taxpayers.
Klocko said he also anticipates union contracts will rise, adding another $800,000 or so to the total. He also said, though, that “something similar” to this year’s wage freezes may be necessary.
State aid to the city is likely to sink by $1 million or more, he said.
Energy costs make up most of the rest of the anticipated shortfall.
“You can see these numbers are starting to total up,” Klocko told city supervisors at the monthly department head meeting.
He told department chiefs to be creative in searching for ways to cut spending or increase revenue by raising fees or offering more service.
Ward touted the success of the fire department in handing over $150,000 for the past fiscal year that it didn’t need to spend.
“We had substantial savings all along the line,” Fire Chief Jon Pose said.
“I’m expecting that from most departments,” Ward said.
The Board of Finance plans to begin its annual budget process this month and finish a draft budget by February in order to give the city time to explore alternatives that might cut costs through streamlining administration.
A final budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year won’t be approved until at least mid-May and perhaps not until June.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

39 comments:

Anonymous said...

With this in mind comes the very difficult but necessary decision to proactively streamline government. Departments could be consolidated with other departments or made smaller without cutting essential services. Yes, this may mean city wide layoffs but other options could include reducing salaries or unpaid furloughs. Hours of operations could also be adjusted such as having City Hall open from 12 - 5 or closed one day during the week. The bottom line is that simply raising taxes is not the only answer here.

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with the first poster. However, I've been saying all along that that may not be enough. I would have rather had a small increase this year than to eventually get whacked with a large increase in a year or two. Unfortunately, our mayor is playing by the Frank Nicastro playbook of no raising taxes and then infrastructure suffers and taxes are eventually raised in a big way.

Anonymous said...

Maybe we can finally give real consideration to transferring funds in the GASB 45, as was pushed by Cockayne.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know it wasn't his idea initially, but he was the biggest and loudest proponent of it so he deserves some credit here. Ward stacked his committee and it was shot down entirely, which I believe no one wanted, not even the unions. Let's negotiate this and save the taxpayers (which includes union members) some money.

Anonymous said...

What about maybe turning off some street lights? Is there a need to have 3 or 4 lights going on a dead end street...That is just one idea - give me an hour and I'll come up with more. Now the question is why cant your council come up with these ideas? Every council should go back to their districts and come back to the Mayor with one savings idea...

Anonymous said...

Maybe we should know what our candidates are going to do before November4th?

Anonymous said...

How does the Board of Finance plan on covering the huge deficit left over from June 30, 2009? That seems to be the first and immediate problem that comes to mind.

Anonymous said...

Thank God for Art Ward.

Anonymous said...

"Is there a need to have 3 or 4 lights going on a dead end street...That is just one idea - give me an hour and I'll come up with more."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, if we turn off those street lights on the dead end street and some kid wraps his car around pole, in our sue-happy society, who do you think they're going to come after? That's just one thought - give me an hour and I'll come up with more...

Anonymous said...

Now is not the time to throw the baby out with the bath water. Sensible cuts are one thing but too often economic downturns are the excuse for gutting programs that serve small segments of our population. everybody is for these cuts until they need the program or service. Then they cry like stuck pigs because they want their share of the pie!

Anonymous said...

This is what happens when you have the old boys in office - Ward is ding the same thing Nicastro did. We will be hit hard with taxes. Ward didn't want to raise taxes this year because he wants another 2 years in office. Again Art thinks about Art.

Anonymous said...

August 5, 2009 8:01 AM - to the idiot that said something about a kid wrapping his car around a pole. A.) they should have their lights when driving
b.) they should not be drinking and driving
C.)there would still be light lit on the street
d.) think before you speak
e.) give me an hour and I will make more fun of you

Anonymous said...

There is no law that says you need to even have street lights! So to the guy that said something about kids and a car or whatever! Wrong! They cant sue anyone!

Anonymous said...

10:51
a) Even with their lights off it'd still be a law suit.
b) Since when do teenagers need to be drinking and driving to hit a pole?
c) Even with the other lights on the street, the lawyers would jump on the fact that some were off.
d) I don't think you have a clue.
e) Give me 5 minutes and I'll have people laughing their asses off at you!
;0)

Anonymous said...

10:54, There was no law that McDonald's had to alert folks that coffee was hot. They were sued for millions...go figure.

Anonymous said...

Can we get back on topic? We need to proactively plan for this. Just raising taxes will not work. City government has waste, redundant functions and can be streamlined to reduce costs. This is what people should be calling the mayor and others about.

Anonymous said...

How can they realistically do a budget 10 months before the new year, when then couldn't do one 2 months before the new year?

Anonymous said...

Don't worry, Gill will resolve it all.

Anonymous said...

"Don't worry, Gill will resolve it all."

LMAO! Will that be before he walks on water cuz it sure would be a miracle?! He knows absolutely NOTHING about Bristol (well, except for what he's read in the paper anyway). Even though he's running for mayor, he still hasn't made time to pencil us into his busy, busy schedule. I've got to agree with the other posters - GGG (Gill's gotta go!).

Anonymous said...

So I guess no lights on RT 2 is a law suit waiting to happen - you people are frigging amazing and the reason the city is the way it is! Start coming up with ideas and stop shooting every idea down! Its time to put up or shut up!

Anonymous said...

Actually Gill won't resolve it all, all by himself.

He has Mocabee, Schafrick and TJ Barnes to help him.

Feel more comfortable now?

Anonymous said...

Although shutting off streetlights is a good idea to save energy, it will not, unfortunately save any money. Streetlights are unmetered service and they are billed under CL&P's Rate 116, which is based on an estimated number of burn hours per month for each light. Burn hours are calculated based on an allegedly scientific formula that takes into account daylight hours varying by seasons. So the City pays whether the light burns or not, because no actual kilowatts are measured. They City even pays monthly bills for streetlights when they are burned out. I do not agree with the system, nor do I work for the City or the electric company, but wanted to point out that it would take an act of the General Assembly or a petition to the Department of Public Utility Control to change the way streetlights are billed in order to save the City any money.

Anonymous said...

I'll say to the city the same thing I've said about our state government. When my husband was laid off last year, we did the only sensible thing and cut our budget back. Households can't effectively operate in the red, and neither should government. Either one needs more income (tax revenues) or less outflow (budget cuts). It's not pretty and no one wants to do it, but does Bristol really want to increase the tax burden on already-struggling middle class families?

The well-off folks in town won't care and neither will the poor renters (they don't pay thousands of dollars a year in property taxes). The real burden of tax increases will fall squarely on the shoulders of Bristol's middle class families, many of whom are dealing with job losses and financial stress already.

Anonymous said...

The City would be in much better shape if Zoppo had been elected. In addition to experience on the City Council, she also had a Master's Degree in Government Planning. You wanted Ward - you got Ward. The good 'ol boy will slap you on the back, buy you a drink and be clueless as to how to budget so taxes don't go sky high for the taxpayers. He'll promise you the moon until he gets relected - then it's 2 more years of folks complaining about his incompetency.

Anonymous said...

8:49am YOU ARE SO CORRECT - YOU CALLED WARD FOR WHO HE REALLY IS. HE ONLY WANTED TO BE MAYOR BECAUSE IT WAS 'HIS TURN.'

Anonymous said...

If you shut off a street light it is taken off your billing, like it didn't exist.
Example: why did we ever turn on the second ligh(s) on N. Main street?

Anonymous said...

i'm pretty sure 4:50 p.m. was being cheeky.

Anonymous said...

Pose knows how to manage & deal with finances, one huge difference between many of the managers and the Mayor.

Wards 14 years of govt service has done nothing for Bristol.


D.

Anonymous said...

12:43

No, my impression of Gill, albeit somewhat limited, is that he thinks the job is a cakewalk and that he has all the answers.

Anonymous said...

I'm a democrat, and I work at City Hall.
Simply, seeing the fiscal situation we are in, the candidate that gets former mayor Bill Stortz involved in the fiscal process gets my vote.

He is as knowledgeable as just about anyone and would be an asset to any mayoral candidates campaign, and to the city.

who can u trust said...

4:15 - believe it or not, pose doesn't make the "hit" list either, like you alluded to other department heads.

Anonymous said...

Who can U trust - I beg to differ!

Anonymous said...

Is it too late to get Stortz to run?

some are suspect said...

9:26 - u should be sure that those whom u trust are to b trustworthy.

Anonymous said...

Pay now or pay time and time again! (After I'm gone)

The Nicastro method as adopted by Art draW

Anonymous said...

Yeah Mayor Ward is leading the way nicastro did, and we will all suffer next year. Thanks for nothing Mayor.

Anonymous said...

And Klocko is taking on a part time job?

Does Ward have any idea as to what is happening?

Anonymous said...

I live in Bristol and I am not going to pay for city employees top dollar health care plan. I suggest you find another way. A $2 million increase in our taxes for all our city employees...Do you know what "OUT OF POCKET" means?

Anonymous said...

We need an experienced mayor/manager: get Stortz to come back.

Anonymous said...

Stortzs letter just touched the surface: it will be bad, and Ward does not have a clue as to what to do.