Budget season is here!
The Board of Finance begins its public examination soon.
First Selectman Jim Marpe presents his proposed town budget on Tuesday, March 9 and — if needed — Wednesday, March 10. He’s requesting $77,103,992 — a 2.21% increase over the current $75,439,392.
An additional $6,127,959 includes requests for the Westport Library ($5,090,148), Westport Weston Health District ($590,811), Westport Transit District ($342,000) and Earthplace ($105,000).
Superintendent of Schools Thomas Scarice and Board of Education chair Candice Savin present their budgets on Thursday, March 11. They ask for $128,013,115 — up 4.98% over 2020-21’s $121,936.488. The bulk of the Board of Ed budget is salaries (64%) and benefits (16%).
Click here to see the entire proposed budgets.
All meetings are held via Zoom, starting at 7:30 p.m. They will be livestreamed on westportct.gov, and shown on Optimum channel 79 and Frontier channel 6020.
Emails to Board of Finance members can be sent to BOF@westportct.gov. Comments to be read during the public comment period may be emailed to BOFcomments@westportct.gov. Full names and addresses are needed.
To comment in real time during the meeting, send an email by noon that day to mmace@westportct.gov. Include your name, address and the agenda item (click here) to which your comments will relate. Participation details will be emailed to you.
I thought I left a reply yesterday but I don’t see it today… I said after reading this I took a pot holed drive to Compo beach . The roads all around Compo are very bad and I hope there is a few bucks for filling pot holes on a regular basis Parks and Rec. in addition the signs are all bent or gone altogether with a metal stump left to trip over or drive over and get a flat tire as I did last summer near the new bathrooms and pickle ball courts .
I’m assuming the roads after the work going on now will be re- paved before the summer season . Does anyone know?
Dear First Selectman Jim Marpe, / Lyan Scully-manager & senior accountant, Sheila Carey controller.
I read some and scanned the 39 pages about the towns budget.
Can you give me a more practical understanding of the town budget:
1) gross Income
2) total expenses
3) NOI
For year 2021 / 2020 this budget is for 2022
I think it would be easier to understand the budget as to where the gain and losses are.
Best,
Gerald F. Romano, Jr.
I don’t mean to rain on the Town of Westport’s better than most Connecticut towns fiscal position.
But here we go!
Most Connecticut residents and I suspect even most of Westporters are unaware of the dire and almost impossible position that the state’s finances are in.
According to the State Controller and their own Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for 2020, the state added an additional $8.2 billion of unfunded pension liability to the long term debt line! The total funded and unfunded long term liability for the state ncluding bonds now stands at about $92.7 billion !!
The scary part here is that many towns in Connecticut do a fairly good job of fiscal management except they don’t report their real unfunded liabilities. The towns are all flying in the same plane whose just about out of fuel with an engine on fire and we are all about to crash our future!
Real bottom line, we cannot fix or manage this disaster with our current trajectory of ignoring the problem and hoping magic will occur and bail us out. You want Connecticut to survive for your children and grandchildren. You better start thinking and doing smarter, not harder!
Sorry for the facts, but some us really do care!