The Windsor Journal

For Windsor, “Plan B” of Governor Daniel Malloy's budget for fiscal years 2012-13 and 2013-14 could spell trouble.

According to a document leaked to the press this week, if state employee unions do not consent to major cuts in the salaries and benefits of their members for the next two years, Governor Malloy will propose retaining the funds needed to close Connecticut's $2 billion deficit from the aid the state provides to towns and municipalities.

It's a scary prospect, says Windsor Town Manager Peter Souza, Wednesday, adding in his understated way, “It would be a significant reduction."

How significant? According to the “contingency plan” that is now on town hall desks around the state, Windsor could lose as much as $4.4 million dollars for the next fiscal year, and an equally large amount for the year after that. And while the number sounds modest compared to the $100 million budget Souza is set to propose for next year, losing it could greatly impact the services the town provides. $4.4 million dollars is very close to the annual wages and benefits of 20-30 municipal workers, who would now would have to be “made redundant.”

It's not the first time this year that Windsor has been threatened with a loss of revenue by the administration's efforts to reduce the state deficit. Under a plan Malloy has already put on the table, the state will retain the refunds it owes to towns and municipalities for not collecting taxes for business investments in new buildings and machinery, under a decades-old law. Windsor is among the towns that will be disproportionately affected by the proposal, because the town has done it's job over the past few years, and has a thriving manufacturing and enterprise area around Day Hill road.

The impact of the $1.7 million dollars that will be lost for Windsor under this plan, is already being felt in Windsor's budget process, and despite Malloy's proposal to offset some of the loss with new taxes on hotel rooms, Souza is not taking any chances.

“It will require a little over a two percent tax increase, just to maintain the services we now offer,” he points out.

Things would be much worse with almost three times that amount in cuts, yet Souza, who took part in a Capitol meeting on Wednesday with other municipal mangers, is not too worried yet. A veteran of the state budget wars, he believes that a lot of the “ideas” now in circulation are there to put pressure on all bargaining sides, and even the $2 billion dollars amount that has been widely quoted – and the $4.7 million Windsor may lose – are more a threat than a realistic target.

“Some of the unions also represent folks in some of the bigger cities, so maybe somebody could say that perhaps that was a message, to say if the state unions don't come to an agreement that it is also going to hurt the towns,” Souza observed.

Beyond that, the numbers that are quoted don't make much sense, he says.

“Honestly, a billion dollars from the unions [for the year] is a huge amount of money to expect to get, no matter how hard the governor tries,” he noted. “I am optimistic that he will be able to get something, but I can't fathom how he can get one billion dollars."

Still, Souza says, Malloy should be commented for not sweeping the problem under the rug.

“I give the governor credit for trying to come at this from the position he does,” he said. “He is becoming the least popular person in the state of Connecticut within these months."

The question, he stressed, is what will happen when the governor brings his plan to the General Assembly where members represent different constituencies, with very different perspectives.

“I don't know how much he is going to gain their consensus,” Souza said.

Still, he says, his focus is not on what the state does, but on the budget process that is now in full swing in Windsor. That the state is far from clarifying the rules of the game this year, doesn't mean that the town council doesn't have to roll out its own proposal for FY2011-12, that will be put to the vote in May. According to the budget calendar, the town council is set to adopt a budget in about two weeks, as usual making some basic assumptions on how the state budget will eventually materialize.

Among them, that Windsor may have to absorb the $4.4 million dollars in cuts that “Plan B” is threatening.

“The council has been asking about the departments, particularly around the services that they provide, and I think that in the next week or two they will decide if they have to reduce some expenditures,” Souza said. “They have a good understanding of programs or services that might have to be reduced, so I would say soon, and certainly by Monday the 25^th they will start getting into some real numbers."

Ronnie Bowman reciting a speech from “Men of Color, to Arms” by Frederick Douglass 1863 during the Black Patriots event presented by the Archer Memorial AME Zion Church to celebtate black history month. THoward and Aaron Jubrey were instumental in putting this event that wwas held at Sage Park together.                       

Photo courtesy of Lawrence Jaggon.

The Town of Windsor is seeking volunteers to participate in a clean up of areas in town. This is a volunteer opportunity and a way to give back to the community and restore Mother Earth. The Earth Day clean up is scheduled for Friday, April 22^nd, from 12:00 noon to 4:00 pm. This is the last day of spring school vacation week. Anyone can participate! Children up to age 12 should be accompanied by a parent or guardian. We work as a team to accomplish as much as we can.

Everyone should meet behind Town Hall at 11:45AM. A photograph of the group will be taken for a press release. We will provide bags and gloves for the task as well as instructions on what not to pick up. We will also provide a vehicle to pick up the bags at collection points. When the clean-up is finished everything we have collected will be weighed before disposal or recycling at the landfill.

If you would like to join us in this effort, please contact Cyd Groff, Environmental Planner, at 285-1987 or JLIB_HTML_CLOAKING by April 20^th.

Students of Kathy Taranto's culinary class recently reviewed and recommended cookbooks, to be added to the Windsor Public Library's collection. On Tuesday, the kids came to the library to hold in their hands the books they picked. The students  will also present  a  “Kitchen Safety for kids” event the first Tuesday in April, and they will cook traditional Irish fare for St. Pat's. The students are:  Jonathan Hurd, Brea Bremser, Amanda Zablocki, Theodore Lee, Matthew Hartwell, Jomar Berrios, Malcolm Archibald, Greg Andrade, Amber Jones, George Curry, Grace Sansone, Chris Reid.                                      

Photo courtesy of Deborah Roe

If Governor Dannel Malloy's recent budget proposal passes, Windsor could lose as much as $1.3 dollars in state funding, a loss that could eventually find its way to the FY2011-2012 budget Manager Peter Souza is now compiling.

The problem stems from Malloy's effort to rein-in spending that in this case will hurt directly the towns that host manufacturing facilities. As part of his 2011-2012 biennial budget plan, Malloy is proposing for 2011 a cut of $44.2 million in the manufacturing machinery and equipment (MME) tax exemption program.

Connecticut’s MME program was created as an incentive for local manufacturers to invest in their in-state facilities. It exempts from local property taxes all newly acquired manufacturing machinery and equipment. In return, the state refunds to the towns the revenues they are losing. In 2008, Connecticut returned to 209 cities and towns $42 million to offset the property taxes they did not levy on more than 4,000 state manufacturers. Next year, that amount may dwindle to zero.

Malloy's plan is to alleviate some of the loss by creating a number of alternative revenue sources – i.e. new taxes. Among them, the governor proposed new boat and aircraft taxes, a local retail sales tax, a room occupancy tax, as well as increases in real estate conveyance taxes.

All the new revenues combined, however, cannot replace the MME funds that the state will retain. According to Windsor Town Manager Peter Souza, Windsor was budgeted to receive $1.3 million dollars from the state, next year, while all the new revenue streams add up to less than $600,000.

“And those are not approved yet, so it becomes more difficult to gage what the general assembly is going to adopt. Will they adopt all of those taxes, will they adopt just one, it becomes a challenge. But in all cases we would come up short,” he notes.

Even worse, points out State Sen. Gary LeBeau, who is Senate chairman of the Commerce Committee and helped write and pass the MME law, Malloy's proposal will affect disproportionately Connecticut's towns, as the formula that he uses creates distinct “winners and losers.”

“There are 23 towns that would see a net revenue loss under this formula while everyone else benefits,” Sen LeBeau calculated. “That is disproportionate,” he said.

While Windsor is losing a hefty chunk, other towns are even worse affected by the cut. Sen. LeBeau’s hometown of East Hartford would lose $3.6 million in state MME aid in 2011, the largest loss of any town in Connecticut, he contends. Other affected municipalities and their potential lost MME aid include: Stratford ($2.8 million); Bristol ($2 million); Bloomfield ($1.4 million); Middletown ($1.6 million); Windsor Locks ($1.5 million); Waterbury ($2 million); New Britain ($1.2 million); South Windsor ($1 million); and Wallingford ($1.6 million).

LeBeau is trying to change the mind of the administration. He said today that following a Wednesday morning meeting with OPM Secretary Ben Barnes and a dozen other legislators, he is encouraged that the Malloy administration will reconsider its plan.

“I would say to those towns that are scheduled to see a gain, do not count your chickens before they hatch,” he said.

Souza is also watching carefully what course the budget process is taking at the state level. He has just a few days to put the last brush strokes in his own budget proposal.

“I will propose my budget to the council in two weeks or so, and so we are trying to gage where the General assembly might go,” he said Thursday. “Generally, what we've done in Windsor is we take the conservative approach, and in this case we would probably assume that will receive less than that $600,000. And so we are still analyzing how we will approach it.”

That means a shortfall of at least $700,000 for next year, that in these difficult economic times may jeopardize some of the town's programs.

There is though a bright spot in an otherwise pretty gloomy picture. Last week it was announced that the legislature approved funding for improvements in train station areas for communities along the New Haven-Springfield corridor.

Windsor is currently dusting off a proposal town officials presented four years ago, that if approved could bring $250,000-$300,000 for local projects, Souza said.

“We need to be able to apply for that money, and we are hopeful that it would be awarded within the calendar year, so some of these efforts could start before the end of the 2011 calendar year,” he related.

He cautions, though, that none of these funds can be used for operation expenses, which means that they cannot be applied to close the MME funds gap.

That task will fall on Souza's shoulders, who will present his plan for next fiscal year's budget plan to the town council on April 4.