Town Council Proposes Budget, Tax Cuts

After weeks of pouring over the town's proposed line items and hearing pitches from various town departments and organizations, Windsor town council members met Monday to discuss changes they'd like to see in what's been put on the table.

Residents may be glad to hear that both sides of the table (in addition to the sole Independent council member) proposed cuts be made.

The most severe proposal came from Independent Lisa Boccia, who proposed enough cuts be made to ensure Windsor residents don't pay a single dollar more in taxes than they do in the current fiscal year.

Town Manager Peter Souza's proposed budget carries a tax increase of roughly 3.2 percent; however, revaluation would actually cause many residents in town to pay taxes reflecting something closer to a 4 or 4.5-percent tax hike.

Boccia told her colleagues she doesn't believe her proposal will become a reality, even calling it "unreasonable" to ask town departments to go back to the drawing board and cut the large amounts necessary to do so. She stood firm, however, saying residents can't afford to pay more in taxes and proposing 2.59 million be cut from the proposed budget.

Boccia said the majority of that money should come from the board of education, which decided against adopting its own finance subcommittee's proposal of a 1.5 percent budget increase of the superintendent's 2.5 percent increase.

Once she crunched the numbers, Boccia proposed a total of $1.74 million be cut from the board of education budget and $852,000 be cut from the town's budget.

Those cuts, she said, would make it so residents don't pay a single dollar more in taxes than they currently do.

Deputy Mayor Al Simon proposed a cut in taxes, as well. Simon said he wouldn't touch the board of education's budget, but he would touch unanticipated revenues to effectively reduce the budget's tax impact on residents.

Simon proposed the council take a look at utilizing revenue from recent economic development in town — particularly revenue generated from Dollar Tree's building permit fees — to pay for a number of cash-funded projects proposed in Souza's budget.

Funding the projects with the Dollar Tree revenue, Simon said, would remove the projects from the proposal, effectively reducing the tax impact on residents to about 2.5 percent.

Simon said the construction of Dollar Tree's one-million-square-foot distribution center on Stone Road has generated $700 thousand in building permit revenue this year, resulting in revenues being about 70-percent higher than expected.

Simon proposed about $500,000 of that money be used to fund the budgeted purchasing of department of public works equipment, efforts to preserve open space in town, support of the Windsor Historical Society's Strong-Howard house restoration and improvement to council technology resources. Simon also proposed a number of cuts, including the town's contribution to 1,000 Friends of Connecticut, describing the organization as nearly defunct, and counsel and legal services.

The council will meet again Wednesday night to adopt a budget and set a date for referendum.