Snow Costs Continue to Impact Town Finances

While the parade of snowstorms appears to have ceased, the ramifications of cleaning up after the numerous storms continues.

Next week the Legislative Council will vote on transferring $175,000 to the emergency fund from the general fund, which is the town's rainy day fund. 

The E&C account was budgeted at about $1.2 million, but the vast majority of that money has gone to paying for snow removal costs, Finance Director Kathleen Etkin said - about $1.1 million, which is about $700,000 more than is spent during a typical winter.

After the requests on Monday's agenda for transfers from E&C are completed, the emergency account will total only about $128,000, Etkin said. 

The general fund itself is far lower than normal, only holding about $500,000, Etkin said, because a crisis last year involving the town's self-insured health insurance fund. But the general fund was recently infused with a $1.7 million deposit from funds the town received from the Connecticut Resource Recovery Authority, Etkin said, bolstering the account.

"The general fund was about $6.5 million and fell to $500,000," she said. "It should be about $10 million.

"Our intention is to flow as much as possible of the $1.7 million into the general fund," she said. "We want to be as careful as possible with what we do with that money."

But there may be a need to transfer more of that money to the E&C account before the end of the fiscal year June 30, she said, because of anticipated additional police and fire overtime costs.

"We think that will be more than $175,000," she said. 

The town is anticipating a shortfall of revenue from several items including building permits, conveyance taxes and tax liens, she said. Tax collections are running on schedule, she said, currently at about 93 percent, though usually at this time that number is closer to 96 percent.

That prompted questions from council president Jim Pascarella.

"It strikes me in some areas we are dancing on a pin," he said. 

"We are in good shape," Etkin said. The town still has several million dollars owed from the state in Education Cost Sharing grants that are expected next month, she said.

"We think we will close the year very close to budget -- either a little above or below," Etkin said.