FAIRFIELD, Conn. Two contingents of Fairfield residents showed up to Monday nights budget meeting waving signs. One group pleaded with the Representative Town Meeting for no budget increases. Another batch of parents asked them to vote no for 2 percent budget cuts.
The end result was somewhere in between. The RTM, Fairfields legislature, voted to trim the Board of Educations funding request by $250,000 in the next year. The cut was far less than the $2.9 million cut proposed at last weeks hearing.
Im very comfortable that thats not a service-level reduction, said Majority Leader David Becker. Its more of an adjustment.
The RTM met last week to discuss potential cuts to the towns $273.3 million budget for the 2013 fiscal year, which runs from July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2013. Becker and the RTMs Republican delegation proposed reducing every departments budget by 2 percent to keep taxes down.
The school systems share of that would have been $2.9 million. Superintendent David Title wrote on his blog last week that a cut of that size would have resulted in layoffs for 20 to 30 teachers and 10 to 20 noncertified staff members.
Title said Monday night the $250,000 cut might result in a pay-to-play program for high school sports or slight cuts to a range of departments. But he reminded the RTM that the final decision would rest with the elected Board of Education.
There would be a lot of options for this, Title said. But I couldnt hazard a guess as to which one would fly with the board.
Even with the reduction, the Board of Educations budget will still increase by about $3.4 million next school year. Much of that will go toward teacher salaries, which will rise 2 percent with the newly approved union contract.
The decision to cut $250,000 passed the RTM by a 27-21 margin with one abstention. The dissenting votes noted that the school boards initial budget was the smallest requested increase in decades.
These budgetary cuts result in cuts to the program that are never going to come back, said Rep. Josh Garskof said.
The only other cut made Monday night was to the H. Smith Richardson Golf Course. The RTM decided to move the courses request for a new $27,801 lawnmower to the next year. Recreation Director Gerry Lombardo said the money would have replaced a 21-year-old model, but the cut would not halt any action at the course this season.
The cuts made Monday night account for about 0.1 percent of Fairfields overall spending for 2012-13. Without the changes, the tax rate is projected to go up 4.58 percent in July. With the changes, the increase now stands closer to 4.5 percent.
The RTM will meet again Tuesday night for more discussion and to cast its final votes. The meeting will be held in the large gymnasium of Fairfield Warde High School starting at 8 p.m.
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