Residents, officials scrutinize town, school budgets

SHARON — The disparity between 2-percent raises for town employees and 3.5-percent raises for Sharon Center School staff was the topic of debate at a budget public hearing last week.

The hearing, which was conducted by the Board of Finance, was held Friday, April 24, at Town Hall and drew more than 40 residents, including town officials, Board of Education members and school employees.

At the beginning of the meeting, Board of Finance Chairman Barbara Prindle said state grants were cut back this fiscal year, which had a major impact on the proposed budget for fiscal 2009-10, which begins July 1.

“The cutbacks left us $58,177 in the hole before we even started the budget,� Prindle said. “The Board of Finance asked the Board of Education to cut $20,176 from their budget, but [the Board of Finance] could not specify where the amounts should be [taken from]. The Board of Finance did recommend cuts of $35,734 from specific line items in the selectmen’s budget. But then, we did add back $36,667 for insurance and bridges and culverts.�

Prindle said the town is trying to keep the tax rate as low as possible.

“Everyone is concerned about the completed property revaluations,� she said. “There is just a lot of unease about it.�

Betsy Hall was the first resident to comment. She said she was upset that school employees were getting higher raises than town employees.

“I think it’s unfair and it sends a bad signal,� Hall said. “It says that town employees are not valued as much.�

First Selectman Malcolm Brown told Hall that in previous years the town has given a 4-percent raise to town employees.

“We did that several times in ignorance of what the Board of Education would do,� Brown said. “I had a conversation early in January with [Board of Education Chairman] Electra Tortorella, and I was hoping at that time to design a town budget with a 3-percent raise [for employees]. As time went on, I began to realize the economy was pretty bad and many people are losing jobs. Some of the towns in the state were planning to give a zero-percent raise for all town employees, but I don’t think that’s true for other towns and their education employees.�

Selectman John Mathews, who voted against the town budget at a selectmen’s meeting in March, said the gap between town employee raises and school employee raises is “insulting.�

“My question is, don’t our town employees work just as hard as school employees?� Mathews said. “I wish both the [Board of Selectmen] and [Board of Education] were on the same page.�

In response, Tortorella said the Board of Education did not want to affect the quality of education for the town’s children.

“The Board of Education has the responsibility of giving a quality education to the children of Sharon,� Tortorella said. “The principal, teachers and staff provide quality education. We chose to make cuts in other areas and not with cuts in our people. We did not know that the [Board of Selectmen] brought town employee salary increases to 2 percent.�

Meanwhile, Board of Finance member Jack Dolan said the proposed 5.87-percent increase for the 24 teachers who work at the school was too much. (The increase is an average.)

“That is an enormous amount of money,� Dolan said.

In response, Tortorella said teacher contract negotiations started in August 2008.

“That was way before the economy started to fail,� Tortorella said. “We went through a lengthy contract negotiation process and it originally was 4 percent. However, we have one teacher who is coming back from a sabbatical and another who changed her certification.�

Sharon resident Alice Hunter asked Brown if, due to the current recession and economic climate, the town could put a wage freeze on any potential salary increase.

“We have 6.14 million Americans who are unemployed right now,� Hunter said. “My family has lived in this town for 50 years now and if the mill rate goes up any higher we’ll lose our house.�

Hunter’s question was unanswered.

A town vote on the budget is scheduled for Friday, May 8, at 8 p.m. at Town Hall.

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