Municipalities started 2017 with less state aid than they had heading into the new year.
Gov. Dannel Malloy’s budget office last week announced $50 million in mid-year cuts to state grants. The cuts are part of an effort to try and balance the state’s budget, which is facing a deficit. The cuts are made up of $20 million from the Education Cost Sharing grant, the state’s largest public education grant, and the suspension of $30 million of grants under the Local Capital Improvement Program (LoCIP), which reimburses municipalities for approved infrastructure projects.
“I was not surprised to learn that the state is cutting significant funds from this year’s local budget. Anyone who follows the news realizes that the state of Connecticut is falling apart piece by piece,” Naugatuck Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess said. “Naugatuck, as well as most other towns in the Valley and in our [Council of Government], has been doing a very good job of working with less revenue from the state, and we will continue to do so.”
“Naugatuck has already lost $400,000 from this year’s education budget after we adopted our final budget,” Hess added. “An additional $145,000 loss is not surprising, but it still hurts us in many ways.
“It is clear to me that these additional cuts by the state are nothing more than the product of the state’s inability to control their own spending. What a way to run a railroad.”
ECS is given to municipalities to help pay for education expenses. The state made deeper ECS cuts to wealthier communities, whose school budgets aren’t as reliant on the grant, while limiting the cuts for poorer municipalities.
Under the cut, Naugatuck will lose $144,375, or 0.5 percent, of its ECS grant. Beacon Falls and Prospect, which make up the Region 16 school district, will lose $32,796, or 0.8 percent, and $56,593, or 1.1 percent, of their grants, respectively. Combined, Region 16’s ECS grant was cut $89,389.
Local school officials decried the timing of what they said was an unexpected cut in funding.
“It’s such a disappointment and it’s irresponsible to do this right now after budgets have been appropriated,” Region 16 Superintendent of Schools Michael Yamin said.
Yamin added the state keeps putting money into charter schools while taking away from public education.
Naugatuck Superintendent of Schools Sharon Locke said school officials carefully plan how they spend their dollars, and the mid-year cut stings.
“It’s the unexpected nature of it that hurts the most,” Locke said.
Locke expressed her disappointed with state officials balancing the budget at the expense of school children.
“For the state to put it on the shoulders of the children of the state is a sad statement to me,” Locke said.
Locke and Hess said they will work together to figure out how to mitigate the loss of the funds.
“We have a very cooperative relationship with the Board of Education, and the superintendent and I will put our heads together and figure out a plan that makes sense,” Hess said.
Beacon Falls First Selectman Christopher Bielik said the cuts were not unexpected.
“I think we’re confident that we can absorb the reduction without any significant impact on operations on the either the region’s side or the town’s side,” he said.
Yamin said Region 16 officials won’t ask Beacon Falls and Prospect for additional money to make up for the ECS cut. He said the region will be able to absorb some, but said it’s likely to have some impact on services to students.
While he doesn’t like it, Bielik said the cut could have been worse.
“For now this is something that I think we can live with,” Bielik said.
The impact of the suspension of LoCIP funds isn’t as clear.
Late last week, Bielik said he was still reviewing what the effect will be to the town.
In Naugatuck, Hess said officials are seeking more detailed information on the balance of funds in its LoCIP account available for this year. He said the town used a significant portion of the funds this summer.
Prospect Mayor Robert Chatfield estimated the town could be losing $64,798 in LOCIP funds.
“The unfortunate thing is that I spend the money on street maintenance and the money was spent last summer on road paving. So it’s not like I can say, ‘Oh, don’t spend it yet.’ I already have. I use it for that summer and apply for it the following year,” Chatfield said.
Chatfield added, “One thing I appreciate is at least we know before the end of the year and before the second half of the fiscal year starts.”
Chatfield said the town received good news recently with an $18,000 increase in the fund balance, which puts it over $1 million.
“The good thing is the fund balance is going up, and maybe winter will be nice and we will have a savings there,” Chatfield said.
Luke Marshall contributed to this article.
