Revaluation, however, will affect residents' tax bills, and the Town Council now must decide what is best for Windsor.
Town Manager Peter Souza has proposed a budget of $95.36 million that would cut spending by almost $450,000 from the current fiscal year.
The tax rate would decrease to 25.98 mills, down from 29.3 mills. Souza said the decreased rate reflects revaluation yet is steady in terms of budget-related taxes.
The council will meet with Windsor department heads and boards in the coming weeks before setting a budget proposal for referendum. The town is tentatively scheduled to vote on the budget on May 12.
The town side of the budget retains employees, though five positions will be eliminated. Souza said at least four of those positions would be eliminated due to retirements or attrition.
"At this point we're hopeful that there won't be any layoffs," Souza said.
The town's portion of the budget would be reduced by more than $300,000 to $25.7 million.
Board of Education spending accounts for the majority of the budget. The school board has proposed a $61 million plan, an increase of close to $1.5 million over the current year.
Staff cuts are necessary to keep school funding down, including more than 10 teaching position and 23 paraprofessionals.
Souza's budget proposal cuts from all other sections of the budget, including Metropolitan District Commission expenditures and debt service. The budget also contains no funding for capital projects or community investments from July 1 through June 30, 2010.
Souza said the council set aside about $1.1 million for capital projects in last year's budget, anticipating the effect of this year's property revaluation. As a result, capital projects could be financed without having to increase taxes.
Without the move by the council, Souza said, funding wouldn't have been available to offset increases in the 2010 proposal.
"This is a responsible budget in that it recognizes the economy and revaluation," Souza said. "There will be service impacts, but we attempted to preserve core services."
Some of the impacts include delayed openings at town pools, reduced hours at the L.P. Wilson Community Center, and reorganizing the library.
Pools would open three weekends later than usual, while the community center would close an hour earlier on weeknights. One full-time position will be eliminated from library staff.
Additionally, the town would impose a wage freeze on all employees in the administrative pay plan, reassign some police officers to patrol in order to reduce overtime costs, and health plans will be restructured.
More cost-saving measures include partnering with Enfield on housing rehabilitation with that town paying $25,000 to utilize Windsor's community development office. Windsor also would attempt to do more purchasing on a regional basis, and traffic lights would be outfitted with light-emitting diode bulbs that will save on energy and maintenance.
Also, the town would reduce capital borrowing from a planned $7.9 million to $2.8 million, resulting in a reduction in debt service.
"It's a huge relief," said Mayor Donald Trinks, regarding Souza's proposal. "The last thing you want to do is lay people off or close buildings because then you're not going to be able to deliver service, and that's what the government's there for."
The focus now switches to the council, which will have to make decisions on revaluation as well as the overall budget proposal.
"The biggest conversation will be revaluation," Trinks said.
According to the mayor, there are a few options to consider. The council could choose to implement revaluation immediately or to phase in the adjustments year by year as a means of mitigating the taxpayer impact.
Or, the town could "roll the dice" on a possible revaluation moratorium. Several legislators have proposed delaying revaluation implementation until the economy stabilizes. The Windsor council has been at the front of pushing for a moratorium.
However, Trinks said he doesn't believe a measure would get through the legislature in time for Windsor residents to consider before the referendum. Should the council take a chance that a moratorium be put in place, Trinks said, members would be risking about $300,000 in state aid.
Trinks said the council would listen to the advice of state legislators regarding the moratorium as the members consider the best course of action for Windsor.
