Friday/Saturday, Mar. 5-6 -- The Board of Selectman approved the Town's 1999-2000 budget on Saturday, after a week of lengthy evening sessions reviewing all deparmental requests.
A quick look at the final numbers:
| Total Town Spending: | $19,559,000 | (up 4.58% from 1998-99) |
| Total School Spending: | $41,802,000 | (up 5.99%) |
| Debt Service: | $ 3,516,000 | (up 11.14%) |
| Total Expenditures: | $65,376,000 | (Up 6.21%) |
| Non-tax Revenues: | $ 9,371,000 | (Down 9.1%) (Mainly due to state and federal transfers that will not be available this year) |
| Required Tax Revenues: | $56,006,000 | (Up 9.45%) |
| Likely Mill Rate | 22.75 | (Up 5.72%) (Remainder made up by increase in tax base) |
The Board of Selectmen spent more than 40
hours going through the town expense budget and the town capital budget,
working to insure that only the real meat of the town's programs remain. Hammering
expenses even down to the details of $500 or $1,000, to postage and
plows, the five board members have met six times this week -- after
working full days at their regular jobs -- making sure the budget they
present to the taxpayers is the bare-bones minimum required run our town.
Here Democratic Selectman Mike Jones wants to make sure the Town's plan for Y2K computer readiness is complete and cost-effective. Jones described the plan he's put in place in his own company. Based on his experience, he suggested that the Town put the burden, and cost, of primary testing for 3d party software on the software vendor who supplied it. (Photo - from left: Democratic Selectmen Mike Jones and Barbara Manners, Republicans First Selectman Abe Morelli and Dr. Peter Yanity)
The budget is originally developed by each individual departments, working with the selectmen on a conceptual level and with Jay Wahlberg, town comptroller, on the details. The final result is almost 600 pages of spreadsheets and documentation, which is reviewed page by page.
On Friday evening (March 5th), while most of us were watching TV, partying or perhaps sleeping, the Board wrapped up all the major cuts. They then met again at 8 am on Saturday in the snow for another five hours of deliberations after Mr. Wahlberg had been up all night tabulating these changes. Finally, at just before 1 pm on Saturday the 6th, the Board voted to approve the capital budget of just under $5 million and an expense budget of $19.6 million. (The Board of Education budget is 2/3rds of town spending, and is estimated to be this year $41.8 million.) From here, both the Town Budget and the School Budget go to the Board of Finance for another round of reviews. Once accepted by the Finance Board, it goes to the voters in late May or early June for final approval, and goes into effect on July 1st.
While all of the meetings are open to the public, not even the usual gadflies bother to attend budget meetings, which is probably too bad because these are the debates where the web and weft of public policy is determined for the year ahead.
Mack Reid is the public's eyes and ears at tonight's meeting. He's the working editor of The Ridgefield Press, and he knows the town better than most. (What's that...? Who is taking these pictures? ... well, yes, www.ridgefielddems.org was there too, capturing these images for our visitors.)
Ridgefield's "2000 Budget" book is thick with details of Town spending down to the smallest account. The Selectmen explore every nook and cranny of it, cutting or reducing many, many items as the process goes forward. (Photo, from left: Barbara Manners, Abe Morelli, and Peter Yanity)
Ridgefield's Comptroller Jay Wahlberg is the master of the Town's accounts. In the 5+ years he's been in Ridgefield, Jay has been recognized by the Government Finance Officers Association for the excellence in financial reporting and accounting he's brought to Ridgefield. Jay is also the overseer of the Town's computer efforts, and has led the Town's efforts to develop and expand the Town web site.
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