Norfolk Selectmen and Board of Finance Looking at Proposed Changes

By Janet Gokay

The Connecticut papers have been awash lately with news of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed budget for the next two fiscal years. When he unveiled his budget before the state legislature on February 18, he announced that it “is filled with tough choices. All told, my proposal contains more than $590 million in cuts to the current services budget.”

Many people are disturbed by the impact the proposed cuts could have on their towns—cuts in social services, health care, state parks and higher education. Malloy’s budget would close the Department of Social Services office in Torrington, forcing people to go to the Waterbury office and putting more pressure on already-strained local budgets. “It would be a travesty for the northwest corner of Connecticut if the Torrington office were closed,” asserted Norfolk’s first selectman, Sue Dyer.

Many people are also concerned about another of Molloy’s proposals: that towns with a resident state trooper pay 100 percent of that cost. Currently, towns with a resident state trooper pay 70 percent—about $120,000—of the cost a year; the state pays the remaining 30 percent. That sum includes a trooper’s salary, benefits, a car and other costs. About 56 towns in Connecticut have or share a trooper, including North Canaan, Salisbury, Litchfield, New Hartford and Barkhamsted.

Malloy’s proposal only intensifies a biennially hot debate in many towns, including Norfolk, about the value of a resident state trooper. Although a resident trooper is, on paper, dedicated to a town, he or she works for the state, not the town—and so can be called upon to respond to incidents such as an accident in another town, as needed. Norfolk’s resident state trooper’s contract will be part of the call of the town meeting, to be held on May 11.

The budget process is not a swift one. From February through May, the General Assembly reviews and debates the governor’s budget recommendations, holds public hearings and makes adjustments. The Assembly then creates its own budget, which the Appropriations and Finance committees approve. The governor is legally required to submit a balanced budget; the legislature must also adopt a budget that is balanced.

Negotiations with the governor’s office reconcile the two versions and determine the final budget language and the state’s fiscal road map for the following two years. Finally, the budget must be voted on and passed by both the house and senate.

In June, the budget returns to the governor, who signs, vetoes or takes no action on it. Connecticut is one of 44 states in which the governor has line-item veto authority. By law, the budget must be balanced when the fiscal year begins on July 1.

Dyer is also tracking certain bills that the state legislature is currently holding hearings on, two of which could have a significant impact on Norfolk: a proposal that all golf courses in Connecticut be classed with farm, forest and open land and so be virtually tax-exempt, and a proposal to eradicate the minimum budget requirement for schools.

“By the end of April, everything’s going to be on the table,” Dyer noted. “It’s only in those last four to six weeks that the rubber meets the road.”