Darien Town Budget Increase Driven by Debt Service Increase

Darien's Town Administrator submitted his budget recently, and asks for a 6% increase over FY 11 estimated spending.

The 6% increase is $2.3 million. Of this, $1.7 million is for debt service increases. This is comprised of a $712 thousand increase in school debt service, a $998 thousand increase in town debt service and a $29 thousand decrease in sewer debt service.

Excluding the increase in the debt service, the Town's budget is proposed to grow $599 thousand in FY 12 or 2.1% over FY 11 estimated spending. That is in line with expected inflation of ~2%.

In FY 09 total town spending was $105 million. Proposed spending in FY 12 is $118 million. Over this same time period total school spending, including debt service is expected to grow from $76 million to $86 million, and town spending from $29 million to $31 million. That is, school spending is projected to grow 13% and town spending 7%.

While school spending is proposed to growth 13%, school enrollment is expected to grow 3%.

Darien Board of Ed Budget Meeting Tuesday February 1.

The Council of Darien School Parents (CDSP) in an email sent today states:

"Please join us in supporting our schools -- these challenging economic times are putting tremendous pressure on our school budget and attending the hearing on February 1st, as either a speaker or supporter in the audience is a huge help!"

The Superintendent asks for $81.7 million dollars in "Total Actual" spending for FY 12. This is $5.7 million, or 7.5% higher than the approved FY 11 budget and $4.8 million, or 6.2% higher than the December 1, 2010 estimate for FY 11. 

The "Net Board Budget" in FY 12 is reduced by revenue of $4.5 million. The biggest revenue item is RC-24, "Excess Cost Grant" $3 million of State funding for special education. The Net board budget of $77.2 million is $5.7 million or 7.97% higher than FY 11 and $5.1 million of 7.1% higher than the December 1, 2010 estimate for FY 11.

Total enrollment expected on 10/1/2011 is 4,871. This is 30 students, or 0.6% more than the 10/1/2010 enrollment of 4,841. 

Characterizing an 8% increase in spending when enrollment is essentially flat as a budget under pressure seems to us strange. We believe it is more accurate to characterize this as a budget out of control.

We agree with CDSP. Please do attend the meeting on Tuesday and stop the Board of Ed from their reckless spending.