Budget impasse leaves towns waiting, wondering

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Gov. Dannel Malloy delivers his fiscal year 2018/2019 biennial budget address to a joint session of the Connecticut General Assembly at the Capital in Hartford in February. A month into the new fiscal year, the state still doesn’t have a budget. -STEVEN VALENTI/REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

As the state budget stalemate continues in Hartford, municipalities and school districts are left playing a waiting game.

“I’ve held off on some major road construction projects. I am being very careful of what I am buying and I’ve held off on some capital expenditures,” said Prospect Mayor Chatfield as he and every official in towns across the state wait to see what will happen with the budget.

The fiscal year is now over a month old. Gov. Dannel Malloy and the legislature have yet to reach an agreement on a state budget as they face a projected $5 billion deficit over the next two years.

The legislature this week passed a state employee labor concessions package that is estimated to save $1.57 billion over two years. The deal was approved along party lines with Democrats supporting it.

The longer it takes to put a budget in place the more it could cost municipalities.

Malloy announced last week that he will not release $78 million in sales tax receipts to communities as part of a revenue-sharing program enacted two years ago, the Connecticut Mirror reported.

Municipalities across Connecticut are working to figure out how to operate with less help from the state, at least for now.

Chatfield said the town is able to continue daily operations because it has been collecting municipal taxes. While he has pushed some larger projects back, Chatfield dismissed the idea of taking smaller measures to try and save money.

“Closing the Town Hall half a day here and there doesn’t solve anything,” Chatfield said.

Beacon Falls First Selectman Christopher Bielik said lack of a state budget hasn’t started to constrict the town, yet.

“The good news for the town is we are in a really strong financial position right now. Even though our state aid money has not reached us as of yet while the budget is in flux, the timing with the tax payments works in our favor. We are able to still meet our operational requirements,” Bielik said.

Bielik said officials moved a number of larger capital projects to the second half of the fiscal year during the budget planning process in case it ran into a situation like this.

In Naugatuck, borough officials anticipated receiving less state aid, Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess said.

“We are proceeding with our budget the way we adopted it,” Hess said last week.

There is only so long municipalities can function properly without assistance from the state, Bielik said.

If, by the beginning of November, the state still doesn’t have a budget, the town will have to begin looking at what, if any, cost-saving measures need to be put into place, Bielik said.

“There will certainly be a time when we will need to have the budget in place so we can get the funding necessary,” Bielik said.

Naugatuck’s Board of Education has already begun to tighten its belt.

Superintendent of Schools Sharon Locke said a 50 percent spending freeze has been put in place on all non-personnel spending, meaning only half of the budget for items like school supplies can be spent until further notice.

Locke said the district wants to fill vacancies and allow staff to buy some materials for the start of school.

In Region 16, which oversees schools in Prospect and Beacon Falls, Superintendent of Schools Michael Yamin is concerned about what the end product will be for a state budget.

The district’s state funding was cut last school year after the budget was passed. If the cuts keep mounting, it will hurt what the district is able to offer, Yamin said.

“If the state continues to ignore the needs of smaller towns the fallout is going to be a negative effect of what we can offer students,” Yamin said.