By Thane Grauel
WESTPORT — Stark predictions of ballooning debt-service costs — fueling tax hikes — emerged during a sometimes tense review of the school district’s capital improvement plan by the Boards of Finance and Education on Thursday.
The schools’ capital plan includes about $95 million in expected work in coming years, with $1.9 million for the new fiscal year that starts July 1.
The town has its own capital projects, including fire station upgrades, which could cost $40 million.
The Board of Finance also is reviewing the schools’ proposed $130 million operating budget for 2022-23. The spending plan is 3.75 percent more than the current year. But if several unions agree to health plan changes, the budget increase could drop to 3.1 percent, which is closer to the 2.5 percent envisioned by finance board members.
The school district recently unveiled a new long-term capital spending plan, which rates each of the eight school buildings by condition, and details expected repairs — and for two, possible replacement in coming years.
$300 million price tag? School, town projects add up
Finance board Chairwoman Sheri Gordon said the town has about $90 million in existing debt, the schools’ capital plan projects another $95 million, not including possible replacement of Long Lots or Coleytown elementary schools, which she estimated could cost $70 million or more.
Plus, there is the estimated $40 million the town is projecting for fire station expenses.
“We’re looking at $300 million in debt, which is huge,” Gordon said. “It’s just an astronomical number.”
She said that the only way to address this issue “is if basically our taxes went up dramatically, our bond rating went down, and we would be basically dedicating a large portion of our operating budget every year to simply just paying off our debts.”
“We can’t continue to just push these things on lists and keeping pushing them down the road,” she added. “We need to make plans, put them into implementation and find a way to do it in a way that works for all of us.
“Whether it’s seniors, whether it’s people who live in town who no longer have children in the schools, or it’s people who have children in the schools.”
Schools’ capital plan a “starting point”
Finance board member Brian Stern said that, by his estimate, about $250 million in capital spending is needed town-wide in the coming years.
But he credited school officials for putting together the new capital plan.
“It’s a better capital plan than I’ve ever seen on the Board of Finance, for the schools,” he said. “The schools were not terribly good before, but this I think has taken it to a new, very good level. And it’s what we need as a starting point.”
“The current debt service is about 6 percent,” Stern said. “That would clearly double, right? So, we’re going to go from six percent to 12 percent, or $13 million extra per year, on a budget level of about $200 million.”
“If you compare that debt level to other towns in Connecticut … That would put us at the highest per capita debt rate in the state, by far,” he said, about $6,000 per resident.
“You’re higher than Hartford and Bridgeport, Waterbury, New Haven — you’re in a category you don’t really want to be in,” he said of the debt levels.
A townwide facilities czar?
There were repeated mentions by finance board members of the need for a facilities director to oversee all of the town’s assets.
“Why don’t we put somebody in place to help us?” finance board member Nancie Dupier said.
School officials said they have decided they didn’t need such a position.
School board Vice Chairwoman Liz Heyer asked what would happen if there were a facilities director, and that person recommended, for instance, the firehouse repairs were a higher priority than a new school.
“Are we then going to give the decision-making power to that facilities director to make the recommendation?” she asked.
“We will come to the table with whomever the town hires to go through that process, but this is a town void that’s being filled,” Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice said, adding there is no need for the position on the Board of Education side of government.
“We’ve produced evidence that we can manage and forecast our facilities,” he said.
Most Westporters love our Town and our Schools. Both have desired capital needs. Our leadership and each of us as residents are going to have to decide what we can afford and what we want. Each of us has priorities. One point I make at this time is that we have a new CMS, a relatively new BMS and Staples and now we are talking about a new Long Lots and major construction at Coley El. This seems problematic. I would like to see Long Lots fixed, not rebuilt. For the Town, I would like to see only a small expenditure for Baron’s South, some trails and clearing. For Longshore, I will await the consultant’s report, but am skeptical of the need for expensive capital costs there. My guess is our Fire Dept. does not really need all that it would like. One project I do like a lot, though the costs have not been developed, are changes to Parker Harding. Westport could probably afford everything. However, it would then have a huge per capita debt load and our taxes would no longer be competitive with many other towns.