My name is Dave Ulmer and I am privileged to have served as Chair of the Board of Finance (“BOF”) since 2011. Jessica Mancini, Paul Sutherland and I request your vote on November 3. We are running as a Team for another term on BoF, because we believe Ridgefield residents have benefitted from our policies and received extraordinary value for their tax dollars.
BoF’s responsibility is to ensure the long-term sound financial condition of the Town. It does this by setting budget levels, subject to voter approval, for overall Town and School Budgets (without line item authority) plus Road and Capital Projects. Under our leadership, working collaboratively both within BOF and with the Board of Selectmen (“BoS”) and Board of Education (“BoE”), in a period of great economic uncertainty following the recession, tax rates declined by 1.15% in 2012, increased by 1.95% in 2013 and 2.49% in 2014, and remained flat in 2015. Most of the 2014 increase was due to moving road maintenance from a capitalized expense into the operating budget, which will save taxpayers literally millions of dollars in the future.
At the same time, the Town maintained all services and Ridgefield Public Schools expanded programs. The major reasons why:
Knowing the difficult economic climate, based on input at annual Tri-Board meetings/discussions in November, both BoS and BoE have kept a lid on overall spending. Thus, BoF has been able to send to voters annual budgets with maximal value and minimal spending increases. Since the recession, School and Town spending have both had compound annual increases under 2 percent, beneath the rate of inflation.
We are retiring the Town’s principal balance by approximately $10 million a year and have lowered interest expenses through refinancing, in accord with our long term plan. In full cooperation with BoS, long term capital projects have been limited to essential items, including funding of $5 million for the Library.
BoF is responsible for setting the Budget’s revenues. We have conservatively forecast ancillary revenues (golf, parks & rec, conveyance taxes, recording and permit fees, etc.) to be sure revenue targets were met. When they were exceeded, particularly in the Spring of 2014, we have used those surpluses as tax relief revenues for next year’s budget. Hence the zero percent increase in FY15. At the same time, BoF has kept our General Fund reserve within our target of 8-9% of annual expenses.
Our responsible budgeting and aggressive debt repayment have helped Ridgefield to retain its AAA Bond rating, allowing the Town to benefit from the lowest possible interest rates.
Our Team has listened, worked hard to study budgets and trends, and kept taxes low without endangering the best services for our citizens and school children. Four years ago we asked you to “Remember in November” and your votes ushered in a period of successful, collaborative, fiscally responsible leadership. Today, Jessica, Paul and I ask for your vote to “Keep the Team” and continue this progress.
The Ridgefield Democratic Town Committee supplies this column.