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FAIRFIELD, Conn. TheDailyFairfield accepts signed, original letters to the editor. Letters may be emailed to gcanuel @ the daily fairfield.com.
Fairfield is so highly leveraged with financial liabilities that we have added $10 million to the budget in each of the last two budget cycles, without adding any new services. These ballooning liabilities are mainly driven by employee-related expenses, including health care, compensation and post-retirement benefits but also include our debt service. Unfortunately, we can easily expect similar $10 million increases in the next three budget cycles, pushing our budget up to $300 million double its year 2000 figure.
Prior to this years budget request, the opportunity was lost to implement any organizational or structural reforms to begin reversing the trend. The budget delivered to the RTM came with an unacceptable tax increase, with no indication of plans to change the trend next year or an understanding of possible short-term savings, if any, of the five or so outstanding labor contracts could yield.
So what do we do? Do we just accept 4 percent to 5 percent tax increases each year or do we compel the town to do something to break the cycle? It's like the impossible job of putting the toothpaste back in to the tube - if it's not impossible, then it's too messy and ugly for anyone else to accept.
Fairfield is at a tipping point where it is simply impossible to maintain a flat year-over-year budget without a combination of structural budgetary reforms, major concessions from the unions and/or reductions in services. While employee costs are driving large tax increases, citizens are asked to contemplate a reduction in services. Affordability is the primary driver of prosperity of any community and any gains we believe we have in value from our regional location and quality schools are being canceled out by the tax burden that has reached its limit.
What most people don't know about or can't connect with is the importance of the recent revaluation that has so many in town outraged. Approximately 20 percent of the town absorbed the historic 10 percent decrease in our Grand List ($15-plus million), making it almost unnoticeable to the other 80 percent of the town. In some cases, those unlucky 20 percent saw their taxes increase from $20,000 to $30,000, having to find an extra $10,000 in their budget in a single year. Its outrageous. What should alarm those currently unaffected by this situation, is that the tax burden will be most likely be more evenly distributed across the town after the next revaluation and we can ALL expect our taxes to spike.
We need to break the cycle. A few weeks ago, RTM Republicans presented what we believed to be the most fiscally responsible proposal this body was in a position to offer - one that would start the much needed conversation, that would last between now and the next budget cycle, centered on the question: What services should this town provide and what is our willingness is to fund them?
Our budget plan was simple - we asked department heads to respond to us with the impact of a 2 percent reduction. We recommended protecting specific incremental expenses that help us ensure we maintain our Aaa bond rating. This plan spread the sacrifice across all town departments while empowering department heads to determine where their reductions can be best applied. It could have indeed caused a reduction and/or services, but we believe it was the kind of urgent action needed to gain control of the budget. Concerned tax payers and concerned parents need to be clear on the trade-offs being made when we fund/cut services and the request yielded some important information for the entire town to see.
Unfortunately, based on a last minute opinion by the town attorney which said the RTM did not have the authority to propose reductions at the department level, countering an opinion from two weeks earlier that stated otherwise. We believe this was a maneuver that quite frankly was aimed to minimize reductions and what has caused RTMs before us to rubber-stamp irresponsible budgets year after year putting us in the very position were in right now. In fact, in our three years as members of the RTM, the Democrats have yet to propose a single budget reduction for vote on the floor of the RTM.
Any reasonable person in town would agree that it is the responsibility of the chief executive of the town to make these granular decisions, not members of the RTM. Its the RTMs job to determine what the taxpayers of Fairfield can afford, not how much we want to fund items like copy paper and postage.
Having the rug pulled out from under us at the last moment, and not wanting to hold the budget process up, RTM Republicans decided to take a more macro approach to make a substantial impact. We might have caught people off guard, but it is clear that we DID NOT create a risk to the town, despite the dramatic language on the floor of the RTM that night. The first selectman has plenty of options available to him and he is in the best position to choose those options, not the RTM. In fact, we fully anticipate that he will use this as an opportunity to implement cost saving reforms in the town hall, perhaps using our 2 percent reduction plan as a roadmap. We also hope it will indeed begin an ongoing conversation about how we can slow the growth of taxes and reduce the cost of town government so we are not looking at another 4 percent tax increase next year. We remain fully committed to working with the first selectman immediately to do just that.
David Becker, R-1 RTM Majority Leader
Joe Palmer, R-4 RTM Assistant Majority Leader
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