Norwalk political notes: Budget items

NORWALK, Conn. — Some Norwalk political notes for you:

• An explanation for $32K increase in NPS superintendent cost in budget documents
• Meek’s voting no, except on ARPA spending
• Livingston also seeks 6TD answers: why the steep mill rate increase?

Does Estrella have a raise baked into the NPS budget?

An eagle-eyed NancyOnNorwalk reader recently went through the Norwalk Public Schools budget book and noticed that the recommended line-item amount for the superintendent is an increase from $302,000 to $332,000. The variance is a $32,218 increase.

The Board of Education votes on a possible raise for the Superintendent of Schools in June after conducting an evaluation process. Last year, BoE members voted unanimously to extend Norwalk Superintendent of Schools Alexandra Estrella contract through the 2024-25 school year and give her a 2% raise.

So why is there an increase on the budget line?

“The current superintendent contract includes reimbursement for payment to the Connecticut Teachers Retirement. That amount is inclusive of that. In the past, this was not part of that budget, hence the variance,” NPS Media Relations Specialist Emily Morgan said.

 

Not no on everything.

You may have heard, the Common Council’s only Republican member has vowed not to vote to approve any more City spending until “this City figures out how to conduct public business in public.”

Well, he has voted in favor of some spending since then, even if he didn’t attend the only Council meeting since that Jan. 24 announcement.

At a recent Recreation & Parks Committee meeting, District D Representative Bryan Meek voted to approve the Oyster Shell Fence project and another item, after asking if they are funding through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

Meek confirmed he’s making an exception for ARPA projects. “Under the use it or lose it philosophy,” he said.

As for “conducting public meetings in public,” Meek was criticizing virtual meetings.

Almost three years after the pandemic prompted social isolation, “we are still preventing members of the public from seeing who from the public has attended, isolating citizens and making them feel like they are talking to themselves instead of a crowd,” he wrote. “…I’m not opposed to zoom meetings but that should be the second alternative. The first should be in person and if the internet is out videotape and post to youtube a day later like we used to.”

 

6TD’s mill rate increase attributed to Grand List status

Common Council member Tom Livingston (D-District E) recently pressed Norwalk Chief Financial Officer Henry Dachowitz about the mill rate calculated for the Sixth Taxing District in Mayor Harry Rilling’s recommended 2023-24 operating budget.

Other district real estate mill rates would increase 3.3 to 3.62% under the recommended budget but the Sixth Taxing District is looking at a 6.21% increase.

Dachowitz recently said the projected mill rate was made in collaboration with 6TD Treasurer Gil Kernan. There’s a “core” mill rate for the Sixth Taxing District as the City doesn’t provide garbage pickup, lighting or fire protection, the district does, Dachowitz said. According to Dachowitz, Kernan presented his budget and asked how much the mill rate should be to provide the funding needed.

Livingston, at the Feb. 14 Special Council meeting, said he’d spoken to 6TD Commissioners and the district’s expenses had gone up $80,000, “roughly $50 a household.”

“Well, there’s a third component,” Dachowitz said, adding a factor he didn’t mention when questioned by Board of Estimate and Taxation member James Frayer the week before.

The district’s assessed Grand List has decreased, Dachowitz said. A “number of homes” were demolished in preparation for reconstruction. While the parcels still have value, it’s considerably less.

Livingston had started the conversation by quoting Dachowitz as reporting that the Sixth Taxing District’s Grand List had decreased $18 million.

“If the assessed value goes down, the mill rate goes up, because we have to get to a certain amount of taxes to be raised,” Dachowitz said. “So the three components were the core, the Six Taxing District, and a reduction in the assessed value, the Grand List for that district.”