Yes, Please Re-work the Budget

Cov. council must rework budget

Tuesday, 07 April 2009
HANNAH CLARKIN

hclarkin@ricentral.com



COVENTRY — The Coventry Town Council called for a complete reworking of the budget prepared by acting Town Manager Paul Sprague at their first work session with department heads on Monday night.

The council was under the impression that Sprague’s municipal and school budget required $3 million in new money, Council Vice-President Raymond Spear said. Upon reviewing the budget in more detail they learned that the proposed budget would require a number closer to $5.5 million to accomplish everything Sprague outlined. Roughly $2.5 million will be required next year, Spear said, just to compensate for losses in state aid, fees and the automotive car tax, among other things. “So there’s $2.5 million that we were not aware of.”Every department head was asked to go back and re-evaluate their needs for the coming fiscal year, Spear said. “We told them that if we level-funded the budget for next year that at the level that they’re spending this year we would still need to have the full maximum levy just to meet the lost revenue to the town.”

In an effort to avoid raising taxes to the full amount, Spear asked department heads to come up with budgets that are 10 percent lower than this year’s levels, he said. Sprague’s budget was balanced by drawing money out of the reserve fund, Spear said. However, because of loans made to the Coventry Sewer Project, most of the $5 million reserve is still loaned out and has not been paid back. The council has asked for revised budgets from department heads within the week, Spear said. “We asked them to tell [Sprague] to what extent they can [work with] a 10 percent decrease and then give us all the rationale for the maximum amount that they need.”The position the town is in is “drastic,” Spear said. “It may mean some loss of jobs. I don’t know, we’d like to hope not.”

At $22,943,415 on the municipal side, Sprague’s budget anticipated a full 4.75 increase in the tax levy, which would equal a 6 percent raise in taxes for residents, Spear said. The council is committed to moving forward with no tax increase for the next fiscal year, Spear said. “We thought level-funding budgets would do it; we have now learned that it won’t; now we have to look at budget cutbacks as a way to get the budget down. We are still shooting for no tax increase but we’re not sure what we can get.”

The meeting with municipal department heads was only the first of several work sessions before the budget is presented at a public hearing for residents of the town Spear said.The council will be meeting again tonight with the school committee and Superintendent Kenneth DiPietro to discuss the school budget, Spear said. In Sprague’s budget the schools were allotted $64,870,966, but that amount is not likely to be feasible this year, Spear said. “I have talked to [DiPietro] and told him that we cannot allow any increase in the budgets for next year,” Spear said. Because of maintenance of effort, the council cannot allot any less to the school department then they did last fiscal year, Spear said, but town legal council will be researching the specifics of that requirement.

The work session with the school committee is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in the town council chambers at the Coventry town hall, Spear said. The public is welcome to attend.