However well New Canaan is doing in terms of health and welfare responses to COVID-19, we have a dire failure of leadership in preparing and planning for the future economically. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and his appointee, Board of Finance Chairman Todd Lavieri steadfastly refuse to face the grim reality that confronts not just New Canaan, but Connecticut and the entire tri-state area.
We are now in an After-Corona world. What has happened before, even in major economic downturns such as 2008 are all BC: Before-Corona events. That world is gone. It is the height of folly to continue insisting that we are immune to what is happening, that incomes and revenues will stay the same and that we will magically collect our BC projected tax revenues next year.
If we are very lucky, we may only take a 30% hit, a decrease that is greater than our reserves. And there is no reason to project that the next several years after next won’t be rough as well. Even before this, we continued to select leaders who championed increases in expenses and spending all while our incomes and worth decrease in the Grand List, which we are so overwhelmingly dependent upon.
The recent Town Council budget debates have shown some new order thinking as some members have begun to question whether this town, or any town, can continue to spend, spend, spend regardless of what goes on in the world at large. The greatest source of debate is in the greatest spender in town, our Board of Education.
Our BoE Chairs, past (Dionna Carlson, Brendan Hayes, etc.) and present (Katrina Parkhill) as well as our Superintendent Dr. Bryan Luizzi, have argued that our school spending will and must continue to go up, year after year, no matter what…forever. But, money doesn’t grow on trees, not even in New Canaan. In the real world there are limits to everything, and spending is and must be tied to what we can afford.
We all want healthier school start times for our adolescents and their younger siblings. No one in town wants low quality schools or for our children or grandchildren, nor for them to receive a poor quality of education. Research though, shows that there is no correlation between spending and standardized test scores, on which our school rankings are based.
The BC conversations before, talked of ‘bending the curve,’ over time, to reduce spending increases. The AC conversations today must be of bending it down, down, down, and actually reducing spending now…learning to, you know, do more with less. The first step for towns today is to delay their budgets for as long as allowed and to use this time to craft new budgets that actually cuts spending, including school spending. In our case, this does not mean abandoning healthy school start times. If our elected leadership accepts the recognition that this is a town wide priority—then they will find the money for it, without the false argument that it necessitates a slashing of educational quality. Other districts have done it and we can a learn a thing or two from the rest of the world, if we choose. And, we can all learn from our neighbor right next door, Ridgefield, which had earlier passed a budget but has now used the emergency powers granted by the governor to recall and recast their town budget in light of the financial crisis before us all.
“Our elected leaders cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today” Abraham Lincoln
Craig Donovan
Eloquent to the point. Thank you again Craig for sensible solutions regarding constant over spending especially BOE.
Nicely said Craig.
With two kids currently in the school system and one just gone to college, I can say without doubt that the school system is the primary reason we live in New Canaan. The other two reasons we chose New Canaan were the commute to NYC and lower taxes, both of which have lost their appeal with long commute times and a higher mill rate on lower real estate values. With no familial ties to NC, we see no reason to hang our hat here once the kids go to college. And that is the problem with CT: that most people without local ties and a decent bank balance will choose to leave for a tax free state.
A better quality school system is not purely a function of money. We need to start lowering the costs and look at usage of staff in various departments and lower costs through attrition. We need to stop buying iPads when everyone has a laptop they can bring to school. We need to stop wasting on marginal benefits with steep price tags that have a cumulative effect on the budget.
With stores and restaurants closed, jobs lost, and the nation in economic free fall, we will no doubt be facing a huge revenue shortfall this year, next year, who knows for how long, before we will (hopefully) return to fiscal prosperity. I so agree that our town government needs to follow the example of Ridgefield “to recall and recast (our) town budget in light of the financial crisis before us all”.
One of the principles articulated by Ray Dalio in his book Principles is that the truth is what it is, not what you want it to be. Until someone can figure out a way to undo our teachers union contract [which I personally would oppose] and get rid of Hartford’s unfunded mandates you can write all the letters you like, but the truth is that the numbers won’t change.
Mike Hobbs
Hi Craig – keeping individual personalities out of this discussion – we can see how challenging it was for the community for a relatively small amount of the budget to be cut – despite what is going on all around. My guess is as we move into month 2 and perhaps 3 and 4 of kids at home not at school, the economy essentially closed, markets down, big personal events delayed or missed and lives lost – more and more people will get comfortable with larger and larger cost cuts – or pauses in investments (which is my preferred option for all discretionary capex). My personal hope is that policy folks (here, Hartford and Washington) really focus on what it takes to reopen schools (including being open in the summer to make sure our kids are ready for the next grade) and get this economy going again, so we don’t have to make very very tough financial and job cuts also for municipal employees.