Budget Adoption

May 9, 2017

Good evening. I would like to thank Mr. Shanley, General Manager and Mr. Wolverton, our budget director, for crafting the town budget. I would also like to thank our department heads and town staff, as well as Superintendent Geary and his staff for their input in the budget process. I would like to thank our citizens who have reached out to us through public comments, emails, and phone calls to voice their opinions on the budget. Some of you have even gone out of your way to see us face to face to express your thoughts. Those thoughts are very valuable to the budget process.

Before I go into my address, be it resolved that the performance-based merit increase for unaffiliated employees are authorized between 0% and 2% effective July 1, 2017 and where salary compression or structural issues are identified, the General Manager has discretion to address these issues within budgetary resources.

The task of adopting a budget is never easy and one the Board of Directors takes seriously. Over the last ten years through a recession and a slow recovery from the recession we have heard from our community to keep taxes low without cutting vital services. We have listened and have adopted budgets ranging from just over a 2% mill rate increase to just under 2% two years ago to .5% mill increase last year. During this period we have improved our infrastructure, protected important programs and services, enhanced public safety, increased financial support for education, passed substantial bond referendums, and grew our fund balance. We, the Board of Directors along with a dedicated and responsible town staff that worked diligently to establish budgets that will continue to move our town forward through this tough fiscal climate.

A few months ago, as the state's fiscal climate got more ugly and deeper into debt, the Board of Directors held a bipartisan press conference to announce a goal to increase the mill rate for the 2017-2018 budget by 0% for the general fund. We began our work starting with the manager's proposed general fund. He had suggested increasing the general fund by 1.56%. Next we asked the general manager and the superintendent of schools to show us what a 0% spending increase would mean in terms of cuts. And after months of workshops, questions and much thought, we obtained our goal and adopted a few minutes ago, a general fund budget that results in a 0% increase to the mill rate. For many people a combination of car and personnel property taxes may lead to possibly a tax decease. Our goal was reached through expense cuts, revenue increases and the use of fund balance. This adopted general budget hopefully helps relieve some financial stress on our citizens. And this budget continues to support our infrastructure, protect important programs such as recreation and leisure, family services, and social services, and most importantly our public safety priorities. Of course, the biggest portion of the general fund is the education budget, which will receive a .8% increase, which mirrors the town side increase of .8%. If you take out debt services from the town side their increase is .1 % remembering that a big percentage of the debt service is school related. As you can see education is the foundation of our community and will remain a priority. As the BOE states, “all of our students will get a quality education and will be prepared to be lifelong learners and contributing members of society!"

Manchester is well prepared to face the uncertainty that we are facing from the state. As stated by Mr. Shanley in his budget summary, "Manchester is well-positioned to weather the storm. Over the years, though the combination of a responsible leadership of its Board, conscientious and conservative stewardship, and with the support of citizens, the Town has built healthy reserves, well-maintained infrastructure, and to provide services efficiently even when major fiscal challenges present themselves." Again, thank you Mr. Shanley for your work through the budget process.

Again, this budget process is never easy and many hours are poured into the process to get to this time of the budget. I would like to extend my gratitude to all those sitting around this horseshoe, my fellow colleagues on the Board of Directors. Thank you for attending workshops, reading materials, and asking questions. There was a lot of preparation for tonight’s budget adoption. Thank you to both caucuses who came together putting political differences aside to do what is best for our town. I personally want to thank you all for your time and commitment to our community. And thank you Minority Leader Eckbreth for your leadership. It's a pleasure working with you. The respect this board has for each other and ability to work with each other reminds me of one of my favorite President John F. Kennedy's quotes, " Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the past. Let us accept our responsibility for the future."

Tonight we didn't kick the can down the road, we picked it up and told our citizens we are listening and we will not balance this budget on their backs! Together we will move Manchester forward, respecting everyone, and continuing to make our town a great place to live, work, play and go to the school!"

May God Bless Manchester!

Thank you and good night!