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Budget Referendum

Summary
The budget failed in the 6/17 referendum.
The Town Council and the Board of Education cut 2.6 million and lowered the mill rate to 37.09.
The WHTA collected enough signatures to require a second referendum.
The referendum will be held on Tuesday, October 7, 2008.

Vote Details
The June 17, 2008 vote was 3,711 YES (for the budget) and 7,037 NO (against the budget).
Last June 2007, the vote was 2,939 YES and 7,893 NO. This means that the budget was supported by a higher percentage – from 27% in 2007 to 35% in 2008. Nearly 800 additional people voted YES this year and fewer voted NO.

Consequences for our town
Due to the failure of the budget in referendum, the Town Council cut 2.6 million from the approved 4/22/08 budget. 1.4 million of the 2.6 million was cut from the Board of Education budget. The new budget is a 5.5% increase in spending from last year, compared to the 4/22/08 budget which was a 7% increase. The cuts were designed to be equitable across the board, affecting every resident and every level of the school system.

Cuts to the Town Budget
The cuts that were made (not all-inclusive):
  • Cutting 20 positions from the Town, none from police or fire.
  • Eliminating Vacuum leaf collection, residents must bag their leaves.Leaf collection was restored unanimously by the Town Council on 9/10/08 and cuts were made to offset the cost of the service: The town is not fulfilling requests for 7 new vehicles to replace those currently on the road. There were cuts to locker replacements, pavement markings, improvements to the town pools, installation of new traffic signals and a communications infrastructure project. There were also savings from the town leaving the director of community services position vacant for the time being.
  • Anticipating savings from the Fire department’s recommendation to close a fire station on Prospect Ave, pending an impact analysis on public safety.
  • $20,000 of public works beautification projects were cut.
  • Increasing fees for outdoor pools, senior centers, disposal of appliances, false alarms and others.
  • Reducing private school transportation
  • Reducing library hours
  • Reducing outdoor pool hours
  • Closing assessor and tax offices on Fridays
  • Reducing fire and police training
  • Eliminating some supplies
For more cuts, see the complete list in the Mayor’s 6/24/08 presentation.

Cuts to the School Budget
The majority of the cuts were from class size increases:
  • Increasing class size guidelines by 1 at elementary schools. This will eliminate an estimated 6 classes in the district and 1.2 specials teachers, for a total of 7.2 full time equivalent positions (FTEs)
  • Changing King Philip grade 7 from 3 teams to 2.5 teams, leading to an average class size of 24.4 instead of 19.5. This will eliminate 2.5 FTEs.
  • Reducing High School FTEs by 2, increasing class sizes.
Other budget cuts were also related to eliminating positions, for a total of 7.6 additional FTEs:
  • Reducing secondary office staff by 4 FTEs.
  • Eliminating Home School Liaisons in the Middle School, eliminating 1.1 FTEs.
  • Eliminating 1 performance music teacher, mostly in the middle schools.
  • Eliminating magnet school coordinator, eliminating 0.5 FTE.
  • Reducing Central office clerical staff by one FTE.
There was also a re-estimate of energy expenditures and a reduction in equipment purchases.
For more details on the cuts, see the complete list in the Board of Education reductions from the 6/25/08 meeting.
For a detailed breakdown of the budget, see the Expenditures by Object Code.

Impact for property owners
The new budget means the median valued home of 354,000 will see a tax increase from last year of $33.80 per month. The cuts will save the median homeowner $8.85 per month. Due to revaluation, the impact on individual homeowners varies. Click here to see your tax bill with the new 37.09 mill rate.

October 7th referendum
The WHTA collected enough signatures to require a second referendum. The referendum will be held on Tuesday, October 7, 2008.

Contribute
West Hartford FIRST is working to support the budget in this second referendum. Please contribute to our efforts. To donate, click here to download the donation form. Print the form, fill it out and mail it to our treasurer with a check made out to WH FIRST.

Quick Information on the Budget
Paid for by West Hartford FIRST, Chris Mozonski, Treasurer
whfirst@whfirst.org