First Selectman: A lot more work needs to be done on municipal budget

By KARA O'CONNOR

Villager Staff Writer


WILTON -- A lot more work needs to be done on Wilton's municipal budget for 2010-2011, according to First Selectman Bill Brennan.

The proposed figures for the Board of Selectmen's capital and operating budgets were discussed at Tuesday night's selectmen meeting. According to Sandy Dennies, Wilton's chief financial officer, there is a proposed 3.6 percent increase in the operating budget and the capital budget currently sits at a 27 percent increase.

"After the Board of Selectman had their budget workshop, they figured out that, combined, the capital and operating budget are currently a million dollars over last year's budget. There is going to be a lot to discuss on Thursday," said Dennies, referring to the board's next budget workshop.

According to Brennan, the board reduced the capital budget by $987,000 at its last budget workshop, leaving $1,375,805, a 27 percent increase from last year. At Tuesday night's meeting, Brennan also noted that two positions were eliminated from two different departments, which, along with various police department reductions, would reduce the operating budget by roughly $140,000.

"We eliminated an HR position -- which saved the operating budget around $25,000 -- and an IT position, which saved the budget around $20,000," said Brennan. "That currently puts the operating budget at a 3.6 percent increase. I don't think that's going to do it."

Brennan said current budget figures are going to be reduced as much as possible to get the budget as reasonable as possible.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us," said Brennan. "We are making progress and we are going to see where we can chip away at the budget."

The next Board of Selectman budget workshop will be held on Thursday, Feb. 18, at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall.