How to Calculate the Mill Rate
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q. How does Wilton stack up against other districts? A. Though the information is dated, the State of Connecticut Department of Education keeps track of many statistics in their "Strategic School Profiles".
Click here to view the Strategic School Profiles.
Q. What impact did the 2010-2011 budget have on each school? A. Recently, Gary Richards spoke at all of the Wilton School PTA meetings to discuss the upcoming budget and the impact of the 2010-2011 budget on each school. Click here for the handouts from these meetings.
Q. Town Meeting - Why should I vote? A. Wilton's form of government is Full Town Meeting. In Wilton, you, the voter, are the legislator. The Town Charter serves as our governing document, or "constitution". The Charter is available for review at www.wiltonct.org. The Town Charter is reviewed every ten years and Wilton has just completed our review, which resulted in a major Charter overhaul. The Town Charter is available for review at Wiltonct.org. The major changes include staggered terms for our Board of Selectmen and the First Selectman (equivalent of "Mayor" in other towns), as well as the removal of the Board of Finance line-item veto power for the Town's Operating Budget. The Board of Finance does not have line item control over the Board of Education's budget either. By state statute, the Board of Education budget must be presented to the Board of Finance as a whole. The Board of Finance may reduce the Board of Education's budget by a percentage, but where the reductions will be made is determined by Board of Education working with the school administrations.
Wilton's Town Charter calls for an Annual Town Meeting to approve the next year's annual budget, and to address any other necessary town business. If less than 15% of Wilton's registered voters participate in the Annual Meeting vote, the budget is automatically adopted as put forth by the Board of Finance. Even if less than 15% of voters vote, your vote does matter. Town officials evaluate the number of Yes's versus No's to get a feel for whether their proposals reflect the views of Wilton's citizens. If you don't vote, silence can be considered agreement.
Q. Why is it so important to go to Town Meeting? A. Our Town Charter allows motions for reductions to the proposed budget at the Town Meeting. Motions to increase the budget may NOT be made during the meeting. If a motion to decrease the proposed budget by a certain amount is made during the Town Meeting, a voice vote is taken at that time. If the motion passes, the budget voted on by the citizens would reflect this new, lower dollar amount. Further motions to decrease the budget may be made until the Moderator closes the agenda item by calling for a vote. The Moderator, elected at the Town Meeting, follows parliamentary procedure for any additional motions. Voting by ballot commences immediately after the Town Meeting, and continues on the following Saturday.
Q. Town Government - Who are these people? A. Wilton's town government is comprised of the First Selectman, the Registrar, and various volunteer boards and commissions. The First Selectman position, currently held by the Honorable William Brennan, is a paid position similar to Mayor in other towns. (The only other paid, elected position is that of Registrar). Wilton has both elected and appointed Boards and Commissions; all positions are filled by unpaid volunteers. The First Selectman, the Registrar, the four member Board of Selectman, the six Board of Education, and the six member Board of Finance are all elected officials. Bios of board members will be provided shortly. For more information for the Board of Education, please see their web site at www.edline.net/pages/Wilton_School_District. For more information on the Board of Finance or the Board of Selectman, please see their links on the Town of Wilton web site at www.wiltonct.org.
Wilton does not have a Town Manager or Administrative Officer, but rather a Chief Financial Officer, Sandy Dennies. The Wilton Public School's Superintendent is Dr. Gary Richards, and the Director of Financial Planning and Operations is Mr. Kenneth Post.
Q. How do I get on a Board? A. Generally speaking, Board members are put forth by one of the two political parties, through their respective nominating processes to run for election. On some Boards, the Board of Selectmen has the say on appointees, and they use the Republican Town Committee and the Democratic Town Committee as the vetting organization. If one wanted to be on particular Board or Commission they would go to their Town Committee and let them know and follow whatever procedure or custom they use to get on the ballot. If one is unaffiliated, one could go directly to the Board of Selectman and in the case of an elected seat, would need to petition with the qualifying signatures, though historically, the best way for an unaffiliated voter to go for a seat is to approach one of the parties. In this state, we have a "Minority Representation Law" which would be more aptly named "Majority Check Law. This law is designed to keep the governing boards balanced and in a community such as ours, where the largest bloc of voters is one party, then unaffiliated, the law provides for minority representation.
Click here for further clarification on the Minority Representation Law.
Q. What is with this No too Low vote? A. On the Wilton ballot, we have the option to vote "No - too low" on the budget. It is still a NO vote. The "No-too low" and the"No - too high" are added together to calculate the total "No" vote. If the "No's" are greater than the "Yes's" then the budget is rejected. In the case of rejection, the budget goes back to the Board of Finance for revision.
Q. Where is the check and balance for me, the Legislator, to have a say on some of these line items?
Your pen/keyboard and your voice and your presence. Show up at the meetings. Speak. Listen. Write letters. Ask your friends and neighbors to do so. If you feel you are not being heard, find someone who will indeed listen and ask them to run for office. And if the Board members are listening, thank them.
Q. What is this 0.8% school budget that I am hearing about? The Board of Finance has suggested that this year's mill rate should increase by 3%. With a 3% increase in mill rate (aka town taxes), the Board of Education, the Board of Selectman, and the Board of Selectman capital would be granted a 0.8% increase over last year's budget.
Click here for the Board of Finance's 2012-2014 Town Budget Projection Presentation to the Wilton PTA Council.
Q. What is the effect of a Board of Finance proposed 0.8% increase in the school budget on our school systems? According to Dr. Richards, the proposed Board of Finance increase of 0.8% would only cover the contractual obligations (teacher salary per contract, health benefits, town pension contribution, transportation) along with a projected increase in the cost of heating oil, maintenance to the facilities and technology projects. The Board of Education budget reductions necessary to meet the 0.8% increase would include dismissing 29 teachers.
Click here for the Board of Education's proposed budget presented at the Wilton PTA meetings.
Q. Why does the Board of Education have to cut teachers? The Board of Education has looked at the budget in depth. Most of the items on the budget are either contractual in nature, due to higher fuel oil costs, a mandatory improvement or a government mandated requirement like Special Education. The only item that can be cut from our school budget to meet the numbers is teachers.
Q. What is this 5.95% school budget that I am hearing about? The Board of Education has looked at the Board of Finance's proposed budget increase and Dr. Richard's has responded with his own proposed budget.
Click here for Dr. Richard's Board of Education proposed budget presented at the Wilton PTA meetings.
Q. Does this 5.95% increase in the Board of Education include any cuts in the current school offering? Yes. The 5.95% increase in the Board of Education budget prevents further erosion of the quality of our school system. However, the following items and initiatives are not included in this budget:
Wilton High School Freshman Mentoring Program
Requested increase in social work and psychologist services deferred
Deferred technology projects including SMARTBoards, document cameras, expanded wireless and printers
Deferred facility projects including Middlebrook Auditorium, Band room, Family & Consumer Science room, part of the High School Art room project, and some security measures
Curriculum improvement projects were reduced by 60 days
Deferred new textbook proposals and textbook replacements
Q. What is this 5.95% increase in the school budget mean to my taxes? The Board of Finance has looked at the effect of a 5.95% increase in the Board of Education's budget and calculates that the mill rate will increase by 8.225%. For the average homeowner, that would mean an extra $3.00 a day to fund the schools in Wilton. This amount is less than the cost of a latte at Starbucks!
Q. I heard that the teacher's union contract is up. When will the Board of Education start re-negotiating the contract? The Board of Education will start negotiating the teacher's union contract in the Summer of 2011. This renegotiation will not have any effect on this year's school budget.
Q. Does the town of Wilton have any other way to increase revenue so our taxes can remain under control but we can increase the Board of Education budget? As you can see from driving around Wilton, Wilton is a mature town and we do not have many more opportunities for building businesses or homes which would increase our revenue. Additionally, the housing crunch has stalled any of the proposed building projects within Wilton.
Q. If we adopt this 8.225% increase in the mill rate, what happens next year? Will our taxes increase like this every year? The Board of Finance has created a FY 2012-2014 Projection that shows the projected town budget with a proposed 3% mill rate increase over the next 3 years. For the upcoming budget cycle, the debt service had to increase substantially over the 2011 budget in order for Wilton to keep its AAA rating. The Board of Finance forecasts a smoothing of the bond offerings at approximately $4 million per year, allowing for management of that line item to minimize major swings in the debt service for the 2013 and 2014 budget. This smoothing will allow the Board of Education, the Board of Selectman and the Board of Selectman capital budgets to each increase by 2.5% in 2013 and 3.5% in 2014 and still only increase the mill rate by 3%.
Q. Can't the town budget be split differently so that the Board of Education can get more money for the schools than the other groups? The Town Budget not only includes the Board of Education but also the Board of Selectman, the Board of Finance, the Fire Department, the Police Department, Parks and Recreation and other town services.
Click here for the Board of Finance's 2012-2014 Town Budget Projection Presentation to the Wilton PTA Council.
Q. I am hearing talk about paying for services in the schools such as paying for sports etc. What is this all about? Some people have suggested that the townspeople finance the schools through contributions to the Wilton Education Fund, pay to play charges and fee based activities. This suggestion goes against the definition of Public Education. If the town decides to adopt these measures, the town would be giving up its public schools. By adopting this model, it in no way means that we will be able to close the budget gap - $1000 per student will not help to close a $4 million dollar budget gap. Additionally, by instituting this model it does not mean that we will have this extra money for our uses. The Board of Finance can still adjust the Board of Education's budget to take into account this extra monies and we will find ourselves back where we were originally - with a huge budget gap.
Talk to your friends in Ridgefield and find out how they like this model. Look at the schools in California who have adopted this model before you decide your opinion.
Q. Who in the town decides if the town goes to a pay to play model? The decision to put a "pay to play" or "activity fee" into place is a decision that the Board Of Ed would request the Superintendent implement. This issue is controversial on the Board Of Ed. So far the Board Of Ed has elected not to request the Superintendent to implement a fee to parents for athletics or other activities. The Board Of Finance does not have a role to play in the decision to implement such a fee. The Board Of Finance can request that the BOE cut its budget to a particular level and the Board Of Ed needs to decide how to do that. For the past 2 years the pay to play issue was brought up in lieu of cutting expenses and rejected.
The Board Of Ed has full responsibility for the school budget; it is one line item in the Town Budget on which the voters cast their vote in May. The BOE recommends a budget which the Board Of Finance reviews and approves or requests it be reduced to a particular level. It is the BOE decision how to reach that level. In the past we have met the Board Of Finance recommendation through expense cuts, not with the addition of fees on parents.
(answered by Gil Bray, Chairman Wilton Board Of Education)
FAQs - prepared by Amy Harris, former Town Committee Chairman, 14 year League of Women Voters member, current Council Third Vice President - School Budget
