Submitted by Andy Duus, former BET and BET Budget member (2018 – 2021)
To the Editor,
In a recent letter to the Greenwich Free Press, prospective Democratic candidate for the BET Scott Kalb introduced his credentials. (KALB: This BET candidate knows a thing or two about investing for the future, saving billions, and lowering municipal costs Aug 27, 2023). I thank him for volunteering his time and talents for this oft-thankless financial management role.
I must also comment, however, on a couple of his letter’s assertions.
1. Mr. Kalb’s letter states that the Town faces over “1.5 billion dollars” of “spending requirements” for “critical projects” in the years ahead. This estimate, however, comes from the annual submission by Town departments of their prospective capital requests for future years. This initial budget step is common in the processes followed by public and private entities alike. It is essentially an unvetted wish list, and not all requests have equal merit. Moreover, the $1.5 billion estimate conflates current dollars and future dollars.
2. Mr. Kalb’s letter further states that “the Republican-controlled BET of the last four years has…[failed] to show leadership in financing critical projects.” If leadership is defined as spending, let’s look at the historical record. The amount budgeted for net capital spending this fiscal year (ending June 2024) is a Town record-high $111 million, up from the $58 million budgeted last fiscal year and before any interim capital approvals. It exceeds the second highest capital budget of $73 million (in fiscal 2017). By comparison, the higher of the two capital budgets approved during the two-year period when Democrats controlled the BET was only $53 million (in fiscal 2020).
By the way, the recent record capital budget would have been even higher had not several years ago the BET began to recharacterize a total of $6.4 millions of annually budgeted expenditures from capital to operating.
The prioritizing, funding and timely execution of capital projects is a major challenge. Future needs are uncertain (anyone wish to project future school enrollment?), and the expectations of citizens appear to be increasing and demanding.
The BET has been successful in recent years in balancing the funding of the right capital projects without significantly affecting tax rates or having excessive borrowings. During the past decade, aided by an increase in Town valuations, the BET has increased the amount of taxes applied to funding capital projects by almost 4% per annum, without meaningful increases either in tax rates or in the amount of Town debt outstanding. But if future capital budgets increase at rates anywhere near that seen this year, the tax burden ultimately borne by citizens would increase significantly.