Town Council - Regular Meeting

All rise for the pledge, please. Can you lead us in the pledge? Yes, sir. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Moment of silence for the men and women in the armed forces, our first responders, our veterans, those fighting the good fight in Ukraine, and those suffering in the military conflict in the Middle East. And may those six US soldiers killed in the line of duty, may their memories be eternal. Thank you. Diane, do we have anybody for public participation? We do.

Got it. Hi, Rosanne Patruso, Courtland Drive. So, I um just came out tonight. might have been watching the meetings online um over the pre the presentations over the watching the meetings online um over the the presentations over the last few weeks. I wanted to come out and voice my support of the board of education's proposed budget that was presented by Dr. Parlott. The budget is a decrease in spending year-over-year. I believe it demonstrates fiscally respons um responsible accounting for the decline in enrollment numbers but still provides the level of support for students needs and to help them um grow as learners. Dr. Parlato highlighted district accomplishments last week and like any other organization she addressed areas in need of improvement and an action plan for future success. I believe that the town council members asked great probing questions and um I I appreciated that you participated in discussions about the inequities of state funding and unfunded ma mandates during Dr. Parlott's presentation. I hope that tonight town council will support the education budget as it's proposed to continue moving our district in a positive direction under Dr. Parlato's strong leadership and her commitment to our district. Thank you. Thank you, Rosanne.

Anyone else? Diane. No. Anyone else from the public like to say anything? Okay. All right. All right. Katie, like move it. Yep. Okay. I'd like to make the motion that we move for the town of New Milford budget the amount of $49,581,236.

Any discussion on the motion for the town side of the budget? All those in favor? I opposed. Thank you. Any abstensions? Thank you. Next, I'd like to make the motion that we approve the board of education budget of 78,773,658.

We have a second. Any Roland? Yeah. Oh, any discussion? All those in favor? I.

Any opposed? Any abstensions? So, thank you everyone. uh before we uh adjourn a couple of housekeeping items uh that we need to be aware of. Now what where does the budget go from here? So the budget now will move over to the board of finance. Walter uh who's the chair uh of the board of finance will be uh holding a town meeting of which the public can give input and then they will have an opportunity to um have their deliberations if they so choose and then they can make adjustments that would be by category if they so choose. Another thing that we need to be cognizant about, uh, Olga and I had, uh, uh, got information from OPM and OPM is kind of the fiscal, um, entity up in Hartford. And we talked about this last year, similar to the same thing this year, and that is what they call the M, what is it, OGA? M, municipal spending cap.

M, municipal spending cap. The state always puts a cap on. This year's cap as it was last year was 2 point. What's it this year? 2

2.64. Last year, the same as the other towns and the same as New Milford. We are over that cap. We are at 3.23. New Fairfield is at 5.8. New Town is at 3.75. Bethl is at 6.7. What they what they do is usually wave that. They haven't given us that yet up in Harford because they're still going through their deliberations, but we wanted to just let everybody know. And Olga, if in fact they were to keep that, what happens?

So, just a small clarification, it's not really a cap on the budget. They don't they don't say that municipalities need to stay within that cap. that cap is only applicable um to one uh possible um revenue that may come from the state. Um and that's why that cap is applicable. It's only when in relation to that grant. So basically the state does have a municipal revenue sharing grant um uh actually municipal revenue sharing fund and from that fund they make several um payments to municipalities. Some of those payments are prioritized. they are statutoily and they are guarantees. If the funding is um remaining, if there is available funding after all those payments are made, then there is a formula based on which um Canadian municipalities will receive additional distributions and that's when uh the municipal spending cap report comes into play. Um so basically they just think that you know if um the municipality is getting some of that revenue from the state then they should be within this cap um and if the municipality exceeds that cap that's a choice but then they will reduce that assistance

and over for the last two years have we gotten any of that money we have not received any funding from have we budgeted any of that money in our budget that we're currently using this year uh nothing Right. So, we never got that money the last two years. It's not in our budget, but we just want to make sure that everybody knows that that is something that OPM looks at, but there's nothing in our budget to reflect that. So, I just wanted to make sure everybody knew that. Uh, Mr. Clarification, the 2.64% increase, is that what you're cap, right? No, no, no. 2.6 is the cap. Yes,

would be an increase. I'm sorry. I apologize.

And then uh next uh tomorrow um the grand list is certified now by Brian, right? Brian has certified the grand list. So this has nothing to do with the budget, so to speak, but the Homestead Act we're going to be putting out uh for people to use. uh it's an estimator. So you be able to plug in your value of what your new proposed value is to the value in in 2020. And that differential right Olga is what's going to be showing up and it will show what your if this budget is passed by the public what your new uh taxes would be on that.

But it's 2024 grand list versus 2025 grand. Correct. Sorry. Any questions, you can call the mayor's office and we'll talk more about that. But I want to thank everybody for coming tonight. As I said, next step it goes over to Walter and his crew and thank you to the town council. Do you have the date? No, Walter does that. Do you know what you're going to? Yep. Yes. Walter, if you could, please. Let's The date is important.

Yeah. The date of the town meetings to be determined. It's uh by uh town charter uh from your budget is going to be published in spectrum. After it's published, there's a time window that we have to wait between publication and having the the public hearing and then we will set a time for our deliberation. And I encourage everybody to come to the public hearing if you want to comment. Last year there was only five people that commented and the year before there wasn't much more. So I'd appreciate if people would show up and give us their input. Great. Thank you, Walter. Welcome. Okay. And if I could have a motion to adjourn. Thank you. Second. All in favor? I

opposed. Abstensions. Thank you, everyone. Have a good night. Thank you. That's all.