In one Connecticut town after another, voters are saying no and sending local budgets back to their leaders for more cuts. Yesterday, Bolton taxpayers said no to the 2008-09 budget for the third time in a month even though the margin of defeat was much smaller than previous attempts. Read story here.
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Here we go again. The state legislature appears to be limping out of its 2008 session taking no action that will help cities and towns cope with the latest fiscal crisis. Once again local taxpayers will be forced to shoulder the load or face severe cutbacks in essential services. Education budgets—the biggest ticket item in most towns—are destined to end up squarely in harm’s way. (more…)

The other shoe fell last week on the CT state budget surplus projection for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008. What was thought to be a modest but healthy $260 million cushion just a couple or months ago has now been pegged at $16 million. Given a budget of $17.6 billion, we’re essentially talking zero at this point. The balance may even go negative when all is said and done. And while no one appears ready to conjure up a dire forecast for next year at this point, I don’t see much light when I look down the tunnel. (more…)

April 21st and 22nd are big days for the history of Connecticut and the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding. This broad based advocacy organization—municipalities, school boards, professional education associations, unions, parents and students among its many members—will follow up an April 21^st news conference with a next day appearance before the State Supreme Court. The Coalition’s legal team will be presenting oral arguments in its fight for an “adequate” education for every Connecticut child. It will be appealing Judge Shortall’s lower court ruling that no entitlement to such a level of education exists under the state’s constitution. (more…)

Back from a much needed week in the warm Florida sunshine. Keeping on with last week’s theme of looking for positives in a negative climate, one of the first things I picked up on was the announcement of a plan to consolidate individual municipal health care programs into a larger self funded group program called the Enhanced Municipal Employee Health Insurance Plan. I haven’t seen all the details of the plan but it seems to be targeted and well suited to small to medium sized towns since some of the larger cities may already be operating under a large self funded program. (more…)

Some of you have rightfully pointed out that much of the information posted on “06106” so far talks about school funding negatives—a weakening economy, slowing state revenues, the threat to ECS phase-in, rising energy and health costs, looming local budget battles. You have gone on to suggest it would be a nice change to hear a suggestion or two of a more positive nature. I agree. (more…)

Each and every year the State Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant becomes a major bone of contention in the local budgeting process in many Connecticut towns. The question is always the same. Is ECS funding—especially any increase—making its way into the BOE budget, or is a chunk of it going to fill the proverbial pothole? With a couple of easily obtained facts and very little math, you can figure out whether a proposed or appropriated BOE budget includes some or all of any new state money. (more…)

It was nice to see the comments from several of you over the weekend. Hopefully it’s just the beginning, and more of you will see something in one or more of the comments that you would like to discuss. I am happy to answer factual questions if I can, and expand on earlier posts where you have expressed interest. But it will be great if the discussion evolves among you readers—so feel free to respond to any of the reader comments as well as the main posts. Agree or disagree as you see fit—but respectfully would be best.

For starters let me offer a little feedback to a few of the submitters: (more…)

So far “06106” has been me sounding off on a variety of issues relating to school funding in one way or another. Tax caps, Education Cost Sharing (ECS), Minimum Budget Requirements (MBR), economic climate, local budget news—you get the picture. If you scan the right margin or scroll down—you’ll see the postings to date.

And now the time has come to hear from you. (more…)

More and more school boards across the state have begun forwarding on their 2008-09 budget requests to their respective town authorities in recent weeks.  Final town approval is still a couple months way—more in some cases—but this is a good time to take a look at what’s happening so far. (more…)