GuilfordPACT's blog

The opinion piece authored by Mr. Balestracci, Mr. Hoey, and Mr. Bloss in the Courier last week contained an unfortunate typographical error (apparently corrections were stripped by the Courier during the transfer of the article to the paper) and should have read less than $150 per YEAR rather than "per month" (or closer to $10 per month) regarding the amount that taxes are going up AS A RESULT OF THE INCREASE IN THE EDUCATION SIDE OF THE BUDGET (education is responsible for about 2.8% of the total 6.9% increase, see below) for a house that currently pays $5000 in taxes (assessed value ~$260K, market value ~$370K). This error has been noted and I understand there will be a retraction on the part of the Courier in the paper this week.

There were 196 registered voters from Guilford at the Community Center tonight, not enough to go to a vote on reducing the proposed budget, so it will go to referendum on the 21st. The turnout was impressive, as full as I've seen the Community Center with many standing in the back, and was mostly supporters of education in Guilford, although the no voters did have their say.
Thank you to all that came out, and to all those that were on call!
Lets keep it up and get out the vote on the 21st. Let me know if you can help phone bank.

Chris

Hello all,

The town meeting for the budget will take place tomorrow (Tuesday April 7th) starting at 7.30pm at the Community Center.

We found out this morning that the selectman's office is preparing for a possible large turnout by getting the Adams Gym ready if the amount attending the meeting exceeds the fire code for the community center (I believe just over 300). This preparation was undertaken due to several calls questioning the specifics of reducing the budget at town meeting and the amount of people that would be required to do this.

It is a week until the town meeting on April 7th and three weeks until the budget vote on April 21st.

This is not a perfect budget. It defers capital costs, including school infrastructure maintenance and construction, and cuts materials. It provides raises and benefit increases, under contract, to union members in an economy where many are struggling to keep their jobs. There are items that could be changed, reallocated, or cut, perhaps without affecting many of us personally. In an economy like this it is tempting to vote "no", as a referendum offers the one chance we as citizens have to say "no" to government and all of its problems.

PACT members and supporters,

Next Thursday, March 19th, PACT will meet to discuss getting out the
vote in support of the budget as well as referendum questions for our
schools on April 21st ($1M for Adams, new roof for Leete, repairs for
Lakes roofs).

The meeting will take place 3/19 at 7pm at the Guilford public safety
complex conference room -- back near the basketball courts at 400
Church St.

While we will spend a brief part of the beginning of the meeting
discussing and bringing up to speed people on some of the issues
related to this budget the bulk of the meeting will be in discussing
specific actions that people attending can undertake to help with this.

PACT is very aware of the difficult times our country, town, and many

The tough thing about this budget is that property taxes are likely to
rise no matter what. This can be attributed to three things: decreased
revenue, decreased reliance on the fund balance ("rainy day fund") for
revenue, and contractual increases in personnel primarily (but not
exclusively) in the BOE budget.

Decreased revenue: Building permits and local revenues are down in
this economy. However, the budget as published only predicts an $88K
shortfall in revenue from last year.

The fund balance: This was addressed in a letter to the BOF prior to
the meeting last week (please let me know if you want a copy). To
summarize, since ~2004 we have drawn the savings account of the town
down from a high of over $7M ~$1M dollars per year so that it is now

The BOE held the second of two public forums on the budget last night. I was not at the first, I believe Ed Greene may file a brief report on the Monday meeting.

Also, if you were unable to attend the State of the Schools address last week it has been posted at: http://www.guilford.k12.ct.us/State_of_the_Schools_2009.pdf

The budget that the BOE is proposing to the BOF represents a 3.67% increase over last year. This is down from a 5+% increase over the last several years, and Bill Bloss cited our percentage increase as lower than six out of eight towns with comparable DRGs. The increase is primarily due to contractual obligations for salary support.

A draft of the budget is available at: http://www.guilford.k12.ct.us/%7Egpsbudget/budgetpb.pdf

QUESTION 1: "SHALL THE TOWN OF GUILFORD APPROPRIATE $15,450,000 FOR ACQUISITION FO THE GOSS AND ZIPP PROPERTIES, AND ISSUE BONDS AND NOTES TO FINANCE THE PORTION FO THE APPROPRIATION NOT FUNDED FROM GRANTS?":

The question passed:

In Favor: 2,645

Opposed: 486

An article (with some colorful commentary) can be found on the New Haven Register site.

* We had over a dozen members present last night for phonebanking, with Page Taft generously donating space and phone lines. We focused on parents and response was very positive – we will be looking at another date in late February and ramping up more as we head into budget season.

* Ed Greene attended a marathon BOF/BOE/ meeting with a focus on the budget and his summary is attached. Thanks Ed for keeping us up to date.

* "Rebuild GHS" is now a Facebook group (thank you Cheilaugh Garvey!). If you haven't dabbled in facebook I would recommend you get up to speed – I joined about a month ago and have found myself reacquainted with several people I thought I would never see again (some more welcome than others!).