[0:26] hey Jim hey Maggie how are you well I'm a nervous wreck Who am I but you did

[0:35] this perfectly yes honey okay hi Maggie good evening good evening Scott you're

[0:50] being surly he was at the dump so he's hustling all right hi Debbie

[0:56] thanks thanks for setting it up Connie yes yes thank you

[1:00] oh and where's Karen hopefully she should be yes I talked to her earlier it

[1:23] was mine worked out I thought I was gonna because I've been having prowl my

[1:27] email but I did okay okay yeah mine works mine was easy Tim you look very

[1:42] official over there I'm on time and a half I don't even see you where are you

[1:51] yes I see now hey Tim hey how are you how's it going it's going okay how's

[1:59] things with you I can't complain yeah Tina bills busy day today was a crazy

[2:06] day it was beautiful a crazy day okay so just everybody knows we are being

[2:11] recorded for all of these messages so just letting you

[2:17] thanks for letting us know looks like Phil may be just connecting to audio and

[2:47] Maggie you said that Scott was definitely coming on he might be a few

[2:53] minutes he had dumped duty tonight so he was very good back ah great I have to

[3:00] actually click everybody in I participated on zoom but I've never

[3:07] hosted a meeting so I did a quick little test with my sister oh there's Karen

[3:14] well you did it right cuz it's great going well you're doing a great job to

[3:20] ask now actually zoom was very good I could actually do online training so

[3:30] there was like a half an hour thing where they kind of walked you through

[3:34] Folkston and white people so that was a good thing so good everybody thank you I

[3:43] care I had a tutorial with my daughter

[3:47] earlier today so know what I was doing so I set my background a little bit

[3:51] cleaner ooh my background looks it that looks

[3:55] okay yes he fell yeah he should be is his first ones this to Scott you're

[4:19] beyond a little nervous about it well you know I did

[4:27] yeah he popped up before go call me if he gets worried my phone is you - I'll

[4:36] pay attention okay it's nice it's a good system it is a good system yeah I'm

[4:45] gonna just stop my video because I need to print something out so I will be back

[4:49] on in a minute but I can still hear you

[5:39] is that Scott on Tiki iPad you know I think that's Tom King Tom Paine yeah

[5:50] I'll be right there okay hi everyone its Nicole hi Nicole Nicole

[5:58] good to see everybody I'm too wimpy to be on video and say I blame you

[6:07] I can't I'm scared

[6:12] is this official meeting yet we're still waiting for a couple more as soon as

[6:20] Karen gets back I think we can start I mean yeah okay well I thought I'd start

[6:28] with other people um

[6:34] okay if other people decide to join I just have to keep checking that out

[6:39] anyway okay I want to I'll just start the

[6:41] meeting I'm just letting everybody said before is being reported and it'll be

[6:48] posted on our town website and before we get started I just would like to take a

[6:54] moment to remember Wade Cole and to thank Wade he was a true native son to

[7:01] everybody here in the town you weren't out of his way to help you support

[7:05] everybody in the town of Heartland and I would also like to thank anybody else

[7:09] Maggie Karen I don't even know all the people

[7:13] who stepped up at this time and really have helped us during a lot

[7:17] of extreme situations that are going in town so that being said I think we get

[7:23] started if we can start with Emma and she can give us a small presentation of

[7:28] the board of the heads budget oh it says you disable the screen sharing I'm gonna

[7:33] share the screen it says host disable screen sharing I can see you know I if

[7:45] you want to put up slides yeah okay okay actually my house is Greg yes I mean at

[8:04] least on my end um if you move your cursor toward the bottom of the screen

[8:09] almost off you might see a little green indicator that says share screen yeah

[8:15] that's what I did and it says that the host disabled it Wow

[8:20] okay there we go oh can you see that it still says disabled okay

[8:30] there might be a control on your in Debbie there you go Oh

[8:40] oh sorry I didn't want to okay I see everybody on the side down the right

[8:47] side but nothing in the middle now Howie doesn't matter well that's not very nice

[8:54] [Laughter] [Music]

[9:03] not even you know what it's this Deb screen not mine there it is yeah

[9:09] okay yeah it's still saying all right okay I'll just go through it all right

[9:15] so I typed I typed it up just so that's the backup um all right so basically our

[9:22] overall budget proposed budget is five million four hundred eighty eight

[9:25] thousand seven hundred forty-three dollars which is an overall decrease of

[9:29] one hundred and thirty seven thousand five hundred and thirty dollars which is

[9:34] a decrease of negative two point four four percent and just quickly work

[9:40] through categories for the of salary category we have a one point two percent

[9:46] increase and that includes the three percent increase preparers custodians

[9:51] bookkeepers administrative assistants and nurses or then we also added one

[9:56] point five teaching assistants to services fed and intervention students

[10:00] and then the teacher salary increases is actually down because they were offset

[10:05] by us bringing in a lower salary hires and it's superintendent of principals

[10:11] salaries are also down negative one point nine though the overall for that

[10:16] category is a one point two percent increase of twenty three thousand six

[10:20] hundred and seven dollars employee benefits are up one point zero percent

[10:25] and that is because working with our broker we have an estimated six percent

[10:30] increase for health insurance for next year which even though we have a

[10:34] decrease staff it's a two percent higher amount that it was the year before the

[10:39] next category is our biggie our purchase services in that category we have a

[10:44] negative five point eight percent decrease and this decrease is

[10:50] significant and it's due to the reduction in our special education up

[10:54] placement and our special education transportation associated with the out

[10:58] placements as well as a decrease in the attorney fees since we do not have

[11:02] teacher negotiations this year so again the total for that line is negative one

[11:06] hundred and seventy two thousand twenty seven dollars our utilities are up four

[11:13] thousand hundred forty-one dollars which is five point marcozzi amounts lower so

[11:17] the electricity costs are down but due to the solar panels but the heating oil

[11:21] is up and then our next category supplies and materials are up 2.7 and in

[11:29] that category teaching and supplies in textbooks we decrease that and we

[11:32] slightly increase the computer supplies and software for a total increase of two

[11:36] thousand two hundred ninety five dollars which is two point seven percent in our

[11:41] last is capital outlay and that's flat at 0 percent so again the total budget

[11:46] is five million four hundred eighty eight thousand seven hundred forty three

[11:51] dollars it is a negative two point forty four percent and negative hundred thirty

[11:55] seven thousand five hundred thirty dollars even just took her to confirm

[12:02] again your number for your total budget by four eight eight seven four three and

[12:11] was lost by five dollars sure will I wanted to thank you also Deb in the

[12:23] Board of Finance and and Karen and my other fellow selectmen this is the first

[12:27] time in 17 years Wade has not done a budget meeting he is sorely missed

[12:33] everywhere in the town our overall bottom line is 1 million nine hundred

[12:39] ninety thousand three hundred forty seven dollars this includes the capital

[12:43] outlay and the municipal reserve contribution our overall increase is

[12:48] fifty four thousand four hundred and seventy two dollars with thirty five

[12:52] thousand seven hundred and eighty seven dollars of that are due to increase in

[12:57] the medical insurance line with this in mind it equates to a one thousand six

[13:02] hundred and eighty five dollar increase in our regular budget lines for services

[13:06] and payroll most lines in our budget either stayed

[13:09] the same or reduced we went with the 3% employee increase across the board which

[13:15] mirrors the Board of Ed employee salary increase our elections and registrar

[13:20] line they're preparing for a double primary and presidential election all in

[13:25] this new budget year so that's a little bit more to plan for we really don't

[13:29] know to expect there our medical insurance the benefits were added for

[13:34] the bookkeeper who now exceeds and continues to exceed 30 hours per week

[13:38] and we've also put in place an estimate for our two hires in the fall in the

[13:42] highways department the normal increase in town insurance is there our liability

[13:48] insurance is on a hold steady with a three year award and that's because we

[13:52] have a good claim good responsibility record and this our fourth one in a row

[13:57] it's great we do have a small increase in workmen's comp and vehicle

[14:01] registration and our VF is which is the firemen's insurance which is normal we

[14:06] have some small increases in company services for the town contractors and

[14:10] contracting services but overall our budget going forward is low

[14:15] thank you very much Karen bring the numbers forward as once I made my

[14:28] correction in terms of the inaccuracy that I'd had on the mill rate the

[14:34] balance would be at six hundred and seventeen thousand five hundred and

[14:39] seventy five which i think is very adequate what I have encouraged and I

[14:50] again I've sent out a couple emails to the Board of Finance because once I

[14:56] realized that I had made the error on the mill rate we were in a much

[15:02] different scenario so my first suggestion had been for the mill rate

[15:07] decrease the second possibility would have been to increase the selections

[15:13] budget for an increased municipal two-third contribution

[15:16] and the third suggestion has been for the Board of Selectmen to actually

[15:22] expend more of their budget this current fiscal year because the highway

[15:30] department has some significant safety concerns equipment upgrades that are

[15:37] needed and I think that that is probably the the path of the easiest path for us

[15:46] to follow if we were to put an increase into municipal reserve then that would

[15:52] necessitate us having another town meeting to deal to allocate that money

[15:56] out of a municipal reserve decreasing the mill rate would have meant a small

[16:03] decrease in each taxpayers annual tax bill but not a significant one and I

[16:11] know that Frank had spoken to me about that and he was like you really

[16:15] disagreed with on that and after speaking with both Maggie Scott and and

[16:22] Gregg I kind of looked at it and with a little bit of different set of glasses

[16:27] on and feel that really going with a flat no Mill rate increase that's us in

[16:34] a really good financial position for next year and allows us to address some

[16:39] of the current needs so that would be my recommendation at this point in time is

[16:45] that we leave the mill rate as it is at 27 point like five yeah

[16:52] twenty-seven point five that's what it is and go forward with that I think

[16:58] we're in good place with municipal reserve the new cell tower will be going

[17:03] in so we can anticipate some increased income with that probably towards the

[17:10] end of the year but we're picking up about a hundred thousand dollars in

[17:14] terms of municipal reserve from the current cell towers plus the hundred

[17:20] thousand dollars that is included in the select men's budget at this time thank

[17:26] you and just closing the me I just want to put a couple things out

[17:34] there the town right now is in stable financial situation and there's a couple

[17:40] things that we have that are positive that are going on right now as Karen

[17:45] mentioned we have a strong municipal reserve that's the money that's been put

[17:49] aside for large projects whether they be projects equipment something like that

[17:56] the other thing that's really positive is that this is the last year of our

[18:01] bond payments so after this year that's of about $95,000 each year that we won't

[18:07] have to spend so that's a really good thing and the balance in the general

[18:13] fund is strong and that general fund needs strong so that we have money going

[18:20] forward in July if we spend every penny at the end of one fiscal year we had no

[18:25] money going forward that means until the tax money came maybe put a balance in

[18:31] our general fund and the last thing that's really positive it's a good and a

[18:36] bad last year the state of Connecticut passed a two-year budget getting the

[18:43] same amount of money in this coming fiscal year that we have in the current

[18:47] year that we're in that being said the state is in a really bad situation right

[18:54] now because they're not getting the tax

[18:57] collections that they are planning on our had planned on before this violet

[19:02] stuff so that's a little bit of an unknown so hopefully we'll be getting

[19:08] the same amount of money but as Karen said earlier certain parts of the grants

[19:12] know most of the small ones like the Pequot grant which we get from the

[19:16] casinos of course that revenues down but I think overall those items really help

[19:23] us going forward knowing where we're going to be next I don't know if anybody

[19:30] else has anything point or would like to speak about

[19:36] actually Dave grant excuse me Greg the state Gramps in turns

[19:41] of the ECS grant we actually are down a little over fifty thousand dollars on

[19:46] that one but overall the difference the difference is about fifty thousand

[19:53] dollars from the state yeah I was just curious what the what the approximate

[20:06] big state monies are over those two years what about each year I believe

[20:16] next year we will getting beginning one point three eight zero about one point

[20:23] three eight one million this year one point four three six so it's it's about

[20:30] you know fifty five thousand dollars the the one grant that I am because the

[20:41] casinos are not even bringing in revenue so but that's a small grant the total

[20:47] amount of that Grant is sixty five hundred dollars so that's not gonna make

[20:51] our bracelets the big concern is always the ECS grant which is decreased in this

[20:59] year by about that fifty thousand dollars and that's what I'm carrying so

[21:04] when you say one point three eight that's in millions is that right 1

[21:09] million three hundred and eighty thousand dollars is what we we expect

[21:13] the state grants so what's the what's the total budget I'm sorry I got several

[21:18] files open here I might not be missing it our total budget the Board of

[21:23] Selectmen is seven million four hundred and

[21:27] seventy nine thousand dollars work that roughly about eighteen and a half

[21:38] percent of our budget is financed by the state grant correct monies yes

[21:44] okay so I'm just curious does anyone know how that compares to other like if

[21:51] we had a cohort of pounds how does that compare I mean - like Colebrook or

[21:58] Granby is it all depends Greg and were you standing on the economic reference

[22:04] grouping Heartland stands right in the middle okay so call Brooke is I think a

[22:11] little bit more affluent you know and and sometimes it's really difficult the

[22:17] rhyme or the reason in terms of where the grant money is how its allocated

[22:24] sometimes we've seen bar camps should actually get more than we do we're

[22:28] actually really a little bit more on par with New Hartford where I live in terms

[22:33] of and rent when we look at all the municipal indicators we're pretty equal

[22:38] in terms of the per capita income etc and what the expenditures per student

[22:43] are so there is you know there's there's been some times where we've looked at it

[22:51] and said geez how come how come North Fork got a little bit more than we did

[22:54] or how come collaborative but but a lot of it depends on again their per capita

[22:59] income so does all this misses my last question does all this fall under the

[23:06] broader heading of aid to cities and towns well there's there's numerous

[23:11] grants and if you pull up the my report you'll see that the state grants are

[23:17] really lines 20 through 44 there's a couple blank lines on there we used to

[23:21] get billy revenue like boat revenue which was $700 a year most of those

[23:27] really small camps are are gone what we do see is the main grants are the ECS

[23:32] which is the education uh share and that's our large grant we get a tiny

[23:37] little municipal projects grant of 955 dollars the pilot grant which is payment

[23:45] in lieu of taxes we get 56,000 for the newer grant number 27 is a municipal

[23:53] stabilization grant and that has is more recent over

[23:57] past three years and we get about seventy six thousand dollars out of that

[24:01] the pequod again to be about twelve thousand dollars we're down to about six

[24:07] adult and we get low sip which is the local capital improvements grant which

[24:13] Maggie applies for usually annually sometimes we're behind and we make it

[24:17] two years in one year and then the townie grows which was just we just

[24:23] received this current years a lot but for that and that typically comes in two

[24:27] to $71,000 allocations but this year we got a whole 142 just this month I see so

[24:35] yeah I did receive that side I should have been able to kind of get to that

[24:39] but it's Abby's comments kind of spurred Mike my question on it so thank you yes

[24:44] so the grant money over over the past couple years has steadily declined okay

[24:51] we were about 1.6 1.7 million dollars just maybe five years ago so we have

[24:57] been you know and I and that will be I believe the trend over the next several

[25:03] years that we will see decreasing revenues from the state mm-hmm hopefully

[25:11] it's on that gradual slide and that we can absorb it without having a

[25:16] significant impact one that is based on I believe the nut the mileage of roads

[25:24] that we have in town and whether there are paved or nine page code isn't that

[25:29] correct Maggie yes I believe it is so you know if you say what is one-time get

[25:34] based on the other it really is depending upon the miles of roads that

[25:39] you have that stays pretty stable I mean and the other thing as far as the

[25:45] ECS Priya our school population has dropped pretty significantly over the

[25:50] past 10 15 years our school enrollment and the EEMA can speak to that I don't

[25:58] have the exact numbers on it but when my children were in school we were at a

[26:02] peak of 325 and we are dramatically below that at this point we have 160

[26:11] yeah okay so if there aren't any more questions we're going to end this

[26:19] meeting and we will regather at 7:30 for the next meeting it'll take me a minute

[26:25] because when I get out of this they have to convert the recording to a different

[26:30] file format and that does take several minutes so soon as that gets done then

[26:34] we'll reconnect and everybody should have a five-minute break thank you all

[26:39] thank you damn a queue yeah I have a question for you okay so as far as

[26:44] floating on the budget do you do it at this meeting or do you do it at your

[26:49] subsequent meeting other subsequent movement okay okay all right thank you

[26:54] thank you thank you thank you

Town of Hartland Budget Hearing 2020

Transcript