Towns anxious about revenues

CORNWALL — A legislative breakfast at the Wandering Moose Cafe Feb. 23 offered a cozy setting over coffee, but the struggle in Hartford a few weeks into the latest legislative session had a chilling effect on a small gathering of legislators, town and regional planning officials and the press.There was a marked difference in the tone from breakfasts held in previous years. The focus is always on a list of issues that will affect towns here, typically driven by unfunded mandates and cuts in state aid. But this time around, the bullet points are overshadowed by fear and dismay over Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s financial directives. Proposed funding cuts and reorganization could have significant negative impacts in areas such as education, public safety and regional planning. But some legislators said they are just as alarmed by Malloy’s various plans to increase revenues — plans they believe will backfire. They include education reform and a restructuring of liquor sales distribution.“It’s the fictional nature of what’s been presented to the people of Connecticut,” said state Sen. Andrew Roraback (R-30). “That’s a bigger problem for me than anything else.”He spoke of the many promises made by Malloy, including a state employee concession package that included a change to value-based health insurance coverage. Roraback is supportive of the preventive health care approach, but said the governor’s office predicted it would save $50 million up front.“By October, they said it would save only $3 million. They said we would save $180 million using employee suggestions, and $90 million using new technology. Now, there’s not a single report of savings, because it’s not happening. It’s make believe. I stand ready to be corrected, and I hope I am, but I said I would shave my head if they met the proposed savings. “I’m not worried,” he said of his chances of his having to follow through on that promise.Roraback noted that in the governor’s last budget address, he stated the next two fiscal year would bring surpluses. “How? If we continue at our current services we would run deficits of $600 billion and $400 ,billion. And because it will violate the spending cap, the Legislature will make adjustments to stay within the cap” —meaning that more funds would be cut.State Rep. Craig Miner (R-66), who serves on the appropriations committee, said not even the chairs have the needed budget information. He compared it to town budgets, where line item transfers require approval by the selectmen, finance board and often a town meeting vote.“There’s no transparency in the governor’s budget. No one knows what they really have to spend or what the net effect of all the adjustments will be.”Education cost concernsThose gathered last week were among a larger number that met at the Torrington University of Connecticut campus Jan. 24, prior to the Feb. 8 opening of the legislative session, which is scheduled to run through May 9. Local officials were given updates on a list of priorities. State Rep. Roberta Willis (D-64) said the proposed 170-page education reform bill has major problems, but may have less of an impact on schools here than feared. Minimum per-pupil funding requirements may be focused on low-performing schools and districts where funding is conditional on making improvements.The issue of forced regionalization could come out of a proposal in the bill that districts with less than 1,000 students would begin losing small amounts of state aid if they are paying more than the state average per pupil. Roraback said that at the Council of Small Towns (COST) annual meeting Feb. 22, Malloy’s answers to questions posed to him showed the governor to be “on a different planet when it comes to understanding the educational system.”Special education costs have the potential to break a town budget without warning, yet there are no proposals on the table to be flexible in response to local needs. “As long as grants are capped, you can change the rules all day long, but when the amount of money we spend on special education doesn’t change, it doesn’t matter,” Roraback said.He stressed that schools will be forced to spend less and less on mainstream education as they struggle to meet federally mandated obligations.Willis said it is an issue of deep concern on “both sides of the aisle.”There are numerous issues in this bill, including teacher seniority and evaluations that Miner sees as an opportunity to make changes. All agreed its effects, as proposed, will be to penalize small school districts. Kent First Selectman Bruce Adams offered the perspective of a retired teacher, taking issue with the way the system works now, where “young, good, energetic” teachers are the first to go when cuts are needed.“At COST, it wasn’t that anyone wants a fight over education,” said Cornwall First Selectman Gordon Ridgway. “There is a willingness on the part of various groups who often don’t agree to work together to make education in the state better.”Prevailing wagePrevailing wage requirements are shaping up to be quite a discussion. A public hearing is coming up on a combined bill that seeks to change the cost thresholds that qualify projects and to reclassify property leased by towns as public buildings. The issue was in the local spotlight recently when the new science and technology center at Housatonic Valley Regional High School was found to have violated the requirement to pay prevailing wage. The school district’s Central Office staff stated it was an oversight, and the underpayment amounted to about $60,000. But Willis, who is on the board of the school’s fundraising 21st Century Fund, which has taken on the task of finishing the project, said “everyone knew from the get-go that we would have to function under prevailing wage. We took $600,000 in federal stimulus money.”She added that the $60,000 came from the contractor and is “not a real number.”“The real amount is probably less than $25,000. But Connecticut law clearly says if a project is to be used for public purposes, prevailing wage applies.”Willis went on to explain some of the proposed revisions are aimed at preventing games that some towns play. She offered an example of a town pool built by a contractor who retains ownership and leases the facility to the town to get around paying prevailing wage.Miner said the appropriations committee was unsuccessful in raising a bill that would address public projects paid for with private funding.Other plans for the sessionLegislation to mandate storm response by utilities, such as backup generators on cell towers, is addressed in a bill introduced by Roraback. About 180 of the state’s 200 towers failed during the October nor’easter.Sharon First Selectman Robert Loucks offered a different perspective.“We need this to be a wakeup call for people to be better prepared at their homes,” Loucks said. “They have become so reliant on public services. They need to at least figure out an alternate source of heat.”“Don’t outlaw woodstoves,” Hartland First Selectman Wade Cole said, offering humorous advice to legislators that may not be that far-fetched. The issue of outdoor wood-burning furnaces remains a hot topic.