Stewart Budget Leaves Schools With Less Local Funding After Inflation

The level of local operating funding New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart (R) has proposed in her budget for the upcoming year appears to leave city schools more than $2 million less, after inflation, than the city’s funding for the current year.

Stewart’s budget would increase overall city spending by $3.7 million. But a small fraction of that, about 14%, would go to the schools’ budget. After inflation, it appears that the actual change in local school operating funding under Stewart’s budget would be a cut of some $2.2 million.

Stewart has been widely criticized for repeatedly flat-funding the city’s funding for the operating budget of New Britain schools. Over a decade of Stewart’s city budgeting, the average amount of the city operating funding increase for schools, as of last year’s budget process, has been about $760,000 per year — just 0.62% per year. With inflation taken into consideration, that flat-funding has meant that the city’s funding for its local schools has significantly decreased.

Stewart’s current proposal is for the city budget year that begins this July 1 and continues until June 30, 2025. It would affect city tax payments due in July and January. Stewart’s overall budget would increase from $265,849,055 to $269,532,733, and the local operating funding for schools would go from $127,500,000 to $128,000,000. The Board of Education had requested $133,287,680.

The tax rate under Stewart’s budget would increase from 38.28 to 39.59 mills on real estate and personal property. State law caps the automobile tax rate at 32.46 mills.

Last year, Stewart and the then-Republican-controlled Council increased property taxes more than 12%, turning revaluation increases in the inflated real estate market into actual higher taxes for city residents, while overall local funding for schools continued to lag.

The Council, presently with an 8 to 7 Democratic majority, will now have the ability to offer changes to the budget plan. However, because of how the New Britain City Charter is written, Stewart can veto any changes Democrats propose, which causes her own budget proposal to take effect as the city budget.

The Council has scheduled a public hearing on the budget for April 23, 2024 at 6:00pm in City Hall.