Politics & Government

City Budget Proposal Would Increase Taxes 2%

Moccia Administration proposes 2.4% Ed budget increase, and puts pressure on teacher unions.

Months ago, Mayor Richard A. Moccia told Finance Director Thomas Hamilton that city taxpayers must not be burdened with a tax increase as high as 4.4 percent in the upcoming fiscal year.

That was the amount that taxes would rise if some current labor contracts are not revised and no cuts occurred in services, either the education budget or in the budgets of other departments, Hamilton said.

In presenting a proposed budget to the Board of Estimate and Taxation on Monday, Hamilton said that in formulating the proposal, "my objective was to bring the mill rate in under 2 percent." The proposal does that: It would increase taxes 1.9 percent.

Find out what's happening in Norwalkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

And, most important to the 120 people who surprised the board by attending the meeting to show their support for school spending, the proposed budget would also hold the education budget to a 2.4 percent increase over the budget amount that was passed last year. Hamilton said that if school employee unions made roughly the same wage concessions that city employees had already made, "I believe it's a number (his proposal for total education spending) they can live with."

The crowd at the meeting was made up of parents and teachers, some of whom wore sweat shirts and other clothing indicating the school they're associated with. While respectful and quiet during the meeting, some occasionally held up "I support education" signs.

Find out what's happening in Norwalkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"I saw your sign. I see it. I got the message. I got the message," Moccia said at one point to people who raised their signs as he spoke. "You can rest your arms—I understand you're serious."

Moccia said that for every education supporter in the audience, there were plenty of senior citizens living on fixed retirement incomes, as well as other people suffering with unemployment or reduced financial circumstances who were worried about tax increases.

The non-education part of the budget—47 percent of the total—had already been cut to the bone in previous years, Moccia said. He and Hamilton recounted the ways: Most of Norwalk's municipal employees outside Norwalk Public Schools already had a wage freeze in place, including the elimination of some "step" increases—wage increases based on continued employment with the city. So many jobs had been eliminated in previous years that Norwalk had nowhere else to cut on the non-education side of the budget.

The budget proposal Hamilton presented would increase the city budget by 6.5 million, or 2.3 percent more than the $280.6 million approved for the current fiscal year, raising the city budget to a new total of $287.1 million. No city jobs are cut on the non-education side of the budget proposal.

The Board of Estimate and Taxation will review the budget, said Chairman Fred Wilms, "line by line, and we're not afraid to ask tough questions of anybody." A hearing will be held in late March when the public will be asked to comment on the board's proposed budget and give the board an opportunity to change its mind before passing it, he said.

Stan Remson, co-president of the Parent-Teacher Organization for the Naramake Elementary School, said, "We'll obviously wait for the budget proposal to get passed. We need all our PTOs to be united and let them know we're not going to sit down and let our schools fall apart."

Remson said Norwalk school unions had made a proposal last year that would have reopened their contracts and cut back on wage increases, but city officials had rebuffed the offer. Yet Remson said he was hopeful that if everyone compromised, including teachers unions, an acceptable budget could be ironed out.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here