Local democrats maintain that the City of Bristol has consistently underfunded education.
Factually, every department in the city has been underfunded.
Each year, department leaders present their budget requests based on their assessment of how much taxpayer dollars will be needed to ideally run their respective departments.
And each year the Board of Finance cuts those requests to align with city revenue derived from the taxes you pay.
The democrats and particularly the chairperson of the BOE, wanted the city to give the BOE over $146 million this year, which was up a whopping $16.5 million from the 2024-2025 budget of $129 million.
The current BOE leadership has mismanaged their budget over the last 2 years and maybe more, resulting in annual deficits. This year it reached an $8 million deficit.
To grow the Grand List, using the most current mill rate, the City would have to create an additional $250 MILLION ANNUALLY of taxable property to generate $7 million of additional tax revenue just to cover the BOE deficits and nearly three times that amount to fill their original $146 million ask!!
A herculean task for anybody.
To write this year’s $7 million check to cover the BOE deficit, the city will need to use the $2.5 million surplus the non BOE departments generated and take funds from the city’s fund balance (reserves).
When the fund balance drops below 12% of the total city budget, our bond rating is negatively affected.
This means it will cost the city more money to borrow funds for current and future planned capital improvements like schools and other municipal projects.
So, what would democrats prefer to do? Raise taxes or cut other department resources and personnel to “fully fund education”?
That is the position democrat leadership on the BOE has put you, the taxpayers of Bristol, in.
