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Guilford Officials Discuss State Revenues

With uncertainty in advance of the state’s budget last year, Guilford planned for major cuts to state funding. While those cuts finally came with a state budget passed last October (and more may come as the state budget is already out of balance), Guilford officials find themselves with more money than anticipated in some areas and less in others—and the task of sorting it all out midway through the town’s budget year.

In light of the state’s budget woes, the overall town budget for the current fiscal year assumed a reduction of roughly $1 million in Education Cost Sharing dollars, the primary program used by the state to help municipalities run their schools.

In the budget approved by the legislature, Guilford lost roughly $200,000 in ECS funding and in the most recent hold-backs sent down from Malloy, another $250,000. However, since the town assumed a $1 million loss, Board of Education (BOE) Chair Bill Bloss said the town is in good shape and plan should be made should the ECS funds continue to run over anticipated amounts.

“We have talked some at the BOE level about what to do with the unbudgeted ECS money that I believe—at least as of today—will come to the town in addition to what we had budgeted for,” he said. “It’s obviously not the BOE’s decision because the ECS grant goes to the town, but it is going to be our very strong advice to this board or to the Board of Selectmen (BOS) that any of those funds in the 2017-’18 year be used not to fund recurring programs or any new programs, but that they be used to offer tax relief either in the form of the bonds for the high school or pension obligations or both.”

As of this moment, Bloss said the town is looking at an excess of $600,000 in ECS revenue after the cuts. He said using the funds for recurring programs is not an optimal financial strategy.

“One of the reasons the state gets in trouble is they fund recurring programs with one-time funds and we don’t think that is a very good idea,” he said. “Am I going to promise there is not going to be an additional reduction? No, but where we are right now is that we are in relatively quite good shape compared to where we expected to be.”

Bloss said there could be more cuts down the road as the state festers in deficit, but the ECS numbers look alright for now. However, First Selectman Matt Hoey said while ECS funds were not completely eliminated, the town was hit on other state funds.

“The ECS numbers are correct, however there were significant reductions in other areas of state funding so the budget signed [by the governor] on the 31st of October did call for $2.6 million in ECS, however we did have some reductions in other areas that offset that,” he said.

Town Finance Director Maryjane Malavasi said the state has released the first ECS payments to towns, but that with all of the other state revenue cuts combined, the town is looking at a $180,000 deficit in state aid.

In terms of the ECS funds, BOF Chair Michael Ayles said Guilford is in better shape than a lot of other towns in the state, but things can still change.

“It will be a very interesting season,” he said of the upcoming budget process.