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05/21/2021 12:00 AMAt the town’s hybrid annual meeting on May 17, the citizens of Deep River adopted a $19,279,257 budget by a vote of 47 in favor of and 20 against the financial plan for fiscal year 2021–’22 (’22). The budget is an increase of $978,489, or 5.35 percent, from the current year.
The mill rate was set at 29.58, a 0.41 mill or 1.4 percent decrease from the current mill rate of 29.99, by the Board of Finance (BOF) at a special meeting on May 18. Property tax is calculated by multiplying the mill rate by the assessment of a property and dividing by 1,000.
Of the $19.27 million budget, the bulk of it, $13,207,198, is spent on education. The cost for Region 4 is $7,564,393, a $70,922 or 0.95 percent increase from current year. The cost for Deep River Elementary School (DRES) is $5,577,805, a $113,661 or 2.08 percent increase. There is also $65,000 in capital improvements for the elementary school included in the category of education.
The budget includes $4,670,530 for general government expenditures, a $135,540 or 2.99 percent increase from current year. There is also $284,720 in capital improvements, a reduction of $51,635 or 15.35 percent from current year. The town’s debt service remains unchanged from the current fiscal year, at $416,809.
The budget contains a $700,000 line item to finance a new fire truck. BOF Chair George “Bud” Eckenroth said at the annual meeting that this $700,000 line item is a placeholder for anticipated borrowing in fiscal year ’22, the first payment for which would come due in fiscal year 2022–’23. If this line item for borrowing were to be removed, he said, the budget would represent a $278,489 increase from current year.
A copy of the budget is available at deepriverct.us.
Changes Since the Public Hearing
At the annual meeting, Eckenroth presented the budget, which had changed based on the input received at the public hearing held on April 28.
Eckenroth reported that the town will not have a shortfall and that town officials made attempts to balance the budget, with a difference in revenues and expenditures at $663.
“The change in revenues is driven by the assumption of what the mill rate will be,” said Eckenroth. “It will be adequate to provide a balanced budget.”
The town also increased expenditures by $10,079, most of which will go toward Deep River Elementary School (DRES), he said.
“We found out that [a] cut that we were recommending, suggesting, wanted to move forward with, cut deeply into some of the programs that would harm some of the students, so we increased it by $8,100,” said Eckenroth.
The Deep River Board of Education (BOE) had approved a $195,576 increase to their budget for the ’22 school year on March 18.
The remaining $1,979 increase to expenditures was a correction to the amount of employer-paid taxes withheld for Social Security and Medicare.
Citizen Input
Several citizens came forward at the annual meeting to comment on the budget prior to voting.
One speaker asked why there were double-digit increases in various line items while another asked whether there had been any consideration regarding the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on taxpayers.
Deep River Fire Chief Tim Lee asked whether the town had plans to finance the replacement of two other vehicles in the Fire Department’s fleet that are beyond their service life.
“If we borrow this year, borrow the next time, and then borrow again, it will get us to the same payment after 15 years,” First Selectman Angus McDonald responded. “We’ll be making the same payment that we would be making on the five-year loan now.
“So, we’re able to graduate that payment scale and still get the trucks on the schedule that we’re getting them,” he added.
The town estimates a semi-annual payment of $30,191 at 3.5 percent over the next 15 years for the firetruck in the ’22 budget, according to Eckenroth’s presentation.
Marc Lewis, a member on the Deep River BOE, was also among the commenters. He spoke at great length about how the budget, and certain expenses, were being presented to the town. The exchange between Lewis and town officials eventually became heated, causing the moderator to call the meeting to order.
Lewis discussed, in part, how the $700,000 for the fire truck was driving up both revenues and expenditures, which could affect year-to-year comparisons.
“When we do our budget for the next fiscal year, we’re going to go from $19,279 respectfully and it’s going to be less $700,000 [for the firetruck]. So, when we do a year-to-year comparison, comparing ’21–’22 to ’22–’23, how are we going to adjust that number?” he asked.
“Because again, the way you have shown it to the public, you’ve shown an increase of revenues of 6.5 percent. You have to normalize that number down and take that $700,000 out to show that the number has only gone up 2.7 percent. Expenditures have only gone up 1.52 percent. The numbers that you are presenting to the public right now are in fact incorrect so that needs to be fixed,” he continued.
Greg Alexander was the last to speak before a final vote was taken. He discussed how the town had purchased firetrucks in the past, by paying for them from the capital nonrecurring fund.
“It seemed smoother. It seemed to work, and we did it for many, many years. We were replacing a truck basically every five years. That is another option. It does not have to go into this budget to show that it’s money that is spent,” said Alexander.