Debate continues on pay raises for town workers

CORNWALL — Should town employees get modest pay raises, or should a tough economy dictate salary freezes? And how does that factor into negotiations for union employees?Those questions made for a lively debate at a March 17 Board of Finance meeting. The main agenda item was to receive updates on town and school 2011-12 budget proposals, and offer a response.The selectmen and school board were commended for holding the line on spending and making efforts to cut even further from their modest original proposals. School costs up 5.2 percentThe school budget was tightened up, though contracted items such as fuel oil and insurance have risen since the original draft proposal. These items are often difficult for boards to plan in advance.The Board of Education presented its final version with a 5.2 percent increase at Cornwall Consolidated School and a 6.62 percent decrease to the regional budget assessment, for an overall spending increase of .08 percent, or $3,255.Each of the six towns in the Region One School District has a budget for its own elementary school. The regional education budget is prepared by the Region One Board of Education and is voted on at a regionwide budget referendum. The six towns in the region share the cost of Housatonic Valley Regional High School; the regional administration; and Pupil Services, which includes special education. Towns pay based on the number of students at the high school.Town spending up 2 percent The selectmen submitted a municipal operating budget that has about a 2 percent increase, which translates to about $32,000. They proposed a compromise to the finance board’s suggestion to reconsider 2 percent raises for a half dozen Town Hall employees.“We reduced it to 1 percent,” First Selectman Gordon Ridgway said. “We feel there should be some token for the good work they do.”School staff is entirely under union contracts, locking in salary and benefits line items. The same goes for highway department workers (who will get a 2.75 percent raise). But the selectmen have the option of giving raises to Town Hall employees.The proposed 2 percent pay hikes will offset to a degree cost-of-living increases. It is also a means of maintaining competitive salaries for skilled positions. Cornwall has given only minimal raises for a long time, and those salaries fall at about the median in comparison to other towns.The debate over the pay raises offered a look at the financial and philosophical aspects of a budgeting issue from various perspectives. In the end, no clear answer or consensus emerged.Finance board member Celia Senzer weighed in on the issue, calling the total $10,000 or so that the 2 percent raises represent, “awfully niggly.” “Whatever everyone else has had as a raise is irrelevant. I’m asking you to reconsider your reconsideration,” she said.Finance board member Earl Brecher strongly agreed with Senzer. No union protectionsOthers referred to issues raised in a letter sent to the finance board earlier in the week by Tax Collector Jean Bouteiller, who expressed her distress over the message a salary freeze would send to that small group — “the only town employees not protected by a union.”She noted that some are part-time workers and have to pay their own (increasingly high) premiums for health insurance. Many have taken certification classes, at their own expense, so they can do their jobs better. Bouteiller claimed the 112 hours of classes and 37 days spent traveling an hour away to classes, on her own time and dime, has resulted in an office that “consistently adheres to the state statutes and has improved collection rates.”And when times are tough, Bouteiller said, staff members who already put in unpaid overtime work even harder to meet the needs of Cornwall citizens.She criticized the selectmen for not allowing her to use to greater advantage legal tools to collect back taxes. Some have been delinquent since 2005. Those outstanding taxes total more than $81,000.“It is admirable that you want to be fiscally prudent, and you should be. However, for the many reasons outlined in this letter, I believe that you are being shortsighted in this attempt. “In order to cut approximately $10,000 from the selectmen’s budget you are telling us that we do not merit an increase, that there is no reason to perform our jobs any way beyond just adequate. All salaries being frozen across the boards would be more understandable. However, to pick on the few least able to defend ourselves is less than fair. If this is what you do in a year with no major expenditures expected, what happens when there are some.”Bouteiller took issue with parallels drawn at a previous meeting by finance board Chariman Ralph Gold, a state worker who is among those taking pay freezes in recent years. Many state workers also took furloughs, which translated into pay cuts.Gold added at the March 17 meeting that many taxpayers in town are seeing pay cuts and other reductions in compensation. He also wondered how pay raises for some would impact upcoming contract negotiations, such as with the teachers’ union this summer. As for the delinquent taxes, finance board member Jack Preston said the town should not be selective in going after delinquent taxes. But Ridgway said the town tries not to foreclose on a family home.The issue of raises will likely be a focal point of the April 29 public hearing on the budget, set for 7:30 p.m. at Cornwall Consolidated School.After the budget discussion was closed, revenues were discussed. Ridgway said the latest word from state Sen. Andrew Roraback (R-30) is to expect about a 20 percent reduction in state aid for roads and schools. Unexpected incomeThat said, Finance Officer Barbara Herbst presented good news in the form of a list of windfalls received or expected soon.• $175,000 in encumbered funds returned to the general fund with the state signing off on the school renovation that was completed five years ago • $49,000 in retainage and a small reimbursement related to the project • $42,000 plus 18 percent interest on the Rumsey Hall lien to pay for its demolition • a $4,800 grant stemming from cable company competition for towns • $12,000 toward the update of the Town Plan of Conservation and Development (against a $24,000 cost) • $5,000 dividend from CIRMA, the municipal insurance provider• $20,000 potential savings due to an adjustment to the last regional school district assessment payment• $10,000 in potential disaster relief for a winter snowstorm in January.