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2023 Budget Season

  • School union leaders urge Norwalk BoE to question Estrella’s coming budget cuts

    School union leaders urge Norwalk BoE to question Estrella’s coming budget cuts

    “The district appears to have decided that teachers with less seniority are going to be the ones to be placed on the hitlist no matter what services they are providing to our student population,” said Norwalk High School Principal Lynne Moore, who is also Norwalk Association of School Administrators (NASA) President.

  • Norwalk CFO: AAA rating not endangered

    Norwalk CFO: AAA rating not endangered

    NORWALK, Conn. — One of the country’s leading rating agencies has changed its methodology, alleviating Norwalk fears about extensive capital borrowing endangering its Triple A bond rating, according to Norwalk Chief Financial Officer Henry Dachowitz.

  • Norwalk tax board sets budget: 2% mill rate hike

    Norwalk tax board sets budget: 2% mill rate hike

    Norwalk’s mill rates aren’t escalating as was predicted just over a month ago – the increase is an average 2% instead of the average 3% that was discussed.

  • Norwalk BoE looks to $4.1 million for FY24 budget

    Norwalk BoE looks to $4.1 million for FY24 budget

    NORWALK, Conn. — The Norwalk Board of Education’s budget delta has decreased – about $4.1 million can be directed to the budget, lowering the amount of reductions needed to align with the spending approved by the City, Norwalk Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Lunda Asmani explained recently. Additionally, NPS might receive up to $2.5 million […]

  • Norwalk teachers union president slams NPS leadership, promises to fight for union members’ pocketbooks

    Norwalk teachers union president slams NPS leadership, promises to fight for union members’ pocketbooks

    NORWALK, Conn. — The plan to switch employees to a different health insurance plan was expected to save Norwalk Public Schools $7 million, Norwalk Federation of Teachers President Mary Yordon said Thursday. “NPS needed careful leadership and timely sensitive actions in order to make this change work, and that was lacking,” she wrote in a…

  • Norwalk BET approves budget, a 4% increase to NPS

    Norwalk BET approves budget, a 4% increase to NPS

    NORWALK, Conn. — The City has set its operating budget for the coming year. Although Mayor Harry Rilling had spoken about alternative funding for Norwalk Public Schools, he didn’t mention the idea as the Board of Estimate and Taxation approved its budget Tuesday. The BET also set a capital budget cap, in line with Rilling’s…

  • NPS forced to stick with higher cost health insurance option for employees

    NPS forced to stick with higher cost health insurance option for employees

    NORWALK, Conn. — Norwalk Public Schools will not be reducing its health insurance costs, as it had hoped. “When the teachers union collectively bargained last year, one of the things that they had in the contract was for the Board of Ed to go out for an RFP to see if there’s something better and…

  • Norwalk BET looks to set operating budget, capital budget caps

    Norwalk BET looks to set operating budget, capital budget caps

    NORWALK, Conn. — Two spending decisions are on the agenda when the Board of Estimate and Taxation meets Tuesday evening. One is the operating budget, which the Board voted to postpone after last week’s lackluster public hearing, in hopes that Mayor Harry Rilling would meet success when he met with Norwalk Public Schools administration to…

  • Norwalk BET looks to keep tax levy below Council’s cap

    Rilling promises another approach NORWALK, Conn. — After an intense two weeks of scrubbing City-side budgets, Board of Estimate and Taxation members found that the resultant $393,000 in reductions was offset by $188,000 in increased heating and electricity costs. Hearing that news Monday, BET members continued squeezing City-side departments, looking for savings here and savings…

  • Norwalk Council sets budget cap

    NORWALK, Conn. — Norwalk Common Council members narrowly agreed on a budget cap Tuesday evening, after three failed votes. Approved 8-6-1 was a $403,559,982 operating budget cap, $1 million more than recommended by Mayor Harry Rilling. This calculates an 4.6% budget increase for the Board of Education, though it’s up to the Board of Estimate…

  • Impact of employee benefits on FY2023-24 BoE Budget

    In the Board’s continuing effort to be as transparent as possible through this budget process, we are sharing some of the finer points involving employee benefits and how they both impact, and are impacted by our FY2023-24 budget situation. First, it is important to note that the district’s overall budget is not where it was…

  • Norwalk political notes: Finance Department issues

    NORWALK, Conn. — Some Norwalk political notes for you, all related to the Finance Department: A hopefully-final Grand List total The Mayor grants a Grand List deadline extension, not the State “Reasonable” that Norwalk’s Tax Assessor isn’t certified Is the Tax Assessor working remotely?

  • Tonight, we will set the Budget Spending Cap; We must be mindful of all Residents’ Needs

    I joined the Common Council in February of 2019. Since then, each budget season has presented its own challenges, and this year is no exception. While the Board of Estimate and Taxation, the City’s budget-setting body, is the ultimate decision maker on the City’s operating budget, the Common Council is responsible for setting the operating budget cap, which…

  • Response to the Common Council’s Feb. 28 discussion of the FY2023-24 Budget Cap

    As we wait for the Common Council to set a budget cap for FY2023-24, the Norwalk Board of Education and I want to address several lingering questions regarding our request for more funding from the City of Norwalk to maintain a level of operation that our scholars and our families have come to expect from…

  • No budget cap yet from agonized Council members as Grand List is again delayed

    NORWALK, Conn. — Common Council members pushed their budget cap decision back another week Tuesday after being presented with an unfinished Grand List calculation, even if the deadline for its completion had passed. In addition to many pleas from parents for school funding and Council responses detailing the difficulty of the task, sharp words were…

  • Where’s the data?

    This is an lightly edited version of a letter sent to the Board of Education and the Common Council.   While I believe strongly in funding our schools, I have concerns as to why important questions have not been answered during this budget cycle. In recent weeks we have heard about the threats of not…