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Board of Finance Chairman Ernesto Nepomuceno said that his panel will probably have to “strike a balance” between conflicting proposals on how much the proposed budget should increase as it tries to get a spending package approved at referendum this spring while the national economy continues to decline.

“I just don’t think this town will support an 8.4 percent increase,” he said in a phone interview this week as the finance board prepared to hold two public hearings over the coming days on its formal recommendation of $54.065 million in spending for the next fiscal year, which would, in effect, increase spending by 6 percent for both education and town government services.
Public hearings on the proposed budget will be held April 15 at Whisconier Middle School and April 21 at Brookfield High School, both starting at 7:30 p.m.
The $54.065 million proposal would include about $35.7 million for education and about $18.3 million for town government services.
It is estimated that it would increase spending by 4.34 percent and taxes by 8.4 percent.
The finance board usually establishes a tax mill rate shortly after the budget is approved at referendum.
The reason for the tax figure’s being higher than the spending increase is partly due to a miscalculation during the current fiscal year in the senior citizen tax relief program and limited growth in the town’s grand list over the last year.
The public hearings will also be used to discuss another package of $51.838 million that would, according to Mr. Nepomuceno, represent a net zero increase in spending.
However, due to limited grand list growth and a miscalculation from the current fiscal year on the senior citizen tax-relief program, even that package would amount to an estimated 3.6 percent increase in taxes.
The proposed $51.838 million package would include $34.047 million for education and $17.790 million for town government services.
Finance board member Rick Martino has said that the proposal approved this week would increase taxes by about $30 a month for the median homeowner in Brookfield.
He has said that a plan that would increase spending by just 1.1 percent overall, as the finance board had recently considered, would represent a $14 per month increase in taxes for that median homeowner.
“I’m not sure that if we adopted the lower figure, which would be a net zero increase in spending, it would pass in the first referendum,” Mr. Nepomuceno said. “That would be more than a 4 percent tax increase, and we didn’t even come close to getting that last year. We ended up with a .3 percent tax increase.”
In three of the last four years, the town has needed three referendums to get a budget approved.
Regarding town government operations, during the current fiscal year residents paid the last of three $850,000 installments on a legal settlement related to a 2000 fatal accident in which a tree fell on a van along Pocono Road.
By eliminating that settlement for the fiscal year in July, it appears as though town spending has increased 6 percent, instead of the 1 percent increase in the year-to-year comparison.
Municipal officials have said for months that there has been less revenue from local sources because of the decrease in construction in town.
Mr. Nepomuceno estimated that the town’s fund balance will probably be at about 5.5 percent, the lowest in more than a decade.
The town has attempted to maintain a fund balance of at least 7 percent every year since 1996.
That effort helped boost the town’s bond rating. There were three quick upgrades, and the rating has been at the coveted AA2 level since 1997.
Departing Town Controller Raymond Bolek has said that only 16 of Connecticut’s 169 municipalities have a higher rating.
The more expensive package was formally endorsed by the finance board March 26 on a 3 to 2 vote, with Steve O’Reilly and Mr. Nepomuceno as the dissenters.
The finance board had considered a package with a 1.1 percent increase for both town government services and education shortly before that session.
Both school board Chairman Daria Rockholz and First Selectman Silvaggi have said that a budget that low would sharply curtail services.
Brookfield Education Foundation President Carol Dores organized a drive late last month that generated more than 1,300 signatures in support of a 6 percent increase in school spending.
She has said that the petition was even signed by several people who do not have children attending the public schools.
Finance board members have said they face conflicting pressures, since usually with a stagnant economy there would be a clear signal to limit the tax increase. However, the petition drive for more education spending has created a conflicting message.
“It’s an interesting year,” Mr. Silvaggi said. “It is hard at this point to predict how things will turn out because you have both people asking for more spending and concerns about the need for lower taxes because of the economy’s being uncertain right now.”
“I think people are just starting to realize that after years of small budget increases, the school district is facing a change in operations if the lower spending is approved,” school board Vice Chairman Wayne D’Orio said.
“I see more support for increased school spending this year,” he said.
Superintendent of Schools Anthony Bivona has said that a 6 percent spending increase would be needed to maintain status-quo operations in the school district.
School board Chairman Daria Rockholz has said that under the proposed 1.1 percent spending increase the school might have to eliminate the equivalent of 20.3 positions.
“Because Brookfield doesn’t get as much education cost sharing money from the state as some other towns, we pay a much larger share of the education costs from our municipal taxes,” Mr. Nepomuceno said regarding the tax burden that residents face as a result of getting a limited amount of state assistance.
“For us, we pay 93 percent of the total costs for our education,” he said. “In Newtown, it is just 87 percent.”
“If you look at the figures nationally, you see that companies are reducing their staffs during what are now difficult economic times,” Mr. Nepomuceno said regarding the lack of recent growth in the national economy. “We may have to do the same thing here with the town and the school programs.”
“If the lower budget gets approved, there would be a significant change in town services,” Mr. Silvaggi said in a phone interview this week.
Mr. Nepomuceno said that he is reluctant to reduce the $550,000 that is in the higher proposed budget for road repairs, since “people keep saying that the roads are in horrible condition.”
Some municipal officials have recommended that the town spend $800,000 to $1 million a year on road maintenance over the coming years.
“There seems to be a lot of people who are getting engaged at an early point in the process,” Mr. Silvaggi said of the interest in the budget.
The finance board is expected to adopt its revised recommendation April 22. That package will go to the annual town meeting May 6. A referendum on that plan will probably be held on or about May 20.
“This year it could be about the future of the school system,” Mr. D’Orio said. “If we lose more positions, it will take a long time to get them back.”
“I think people are concerned now because they see that a lower budget would mean eliminating freshman sports at the Brookfield High School and also eliminating co-curricular programs at Whisconier Middle School and at Huckleberry Hill Elementary School,” Mr. D’Orio said.
Mrs. Rockholz said that the proposed 1.1 percent spending increase that the finance board recently considered could force the district to eliminate the equivalent of 20.3 positions as well as the co-curricular and after-school programs at the elementary schools and at Whisconier Middle School.
Mr. Bivona has said that the district has lost the equivalent of 22.8 positions over the last three years.
Police Chief Robin Montgomery said that if the higher budget is approved, it appears that the department will not have to eliminate any positions.
It had requested an additional position this winter. The department has not added any staff since 1999.

By Scott Benjamin