Wallingford Mayor William Dickinson said he did have concerns that the town government would lose state funding in the upcoming fiscal year.
And while Wallingford is in fact expected to lose a $1.54 million manufacturing grant, the it appears there may be a plan in place to offset that loss with other, new grants, according to a breakdown of the numbers in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's proposed budget.
According to the budget, which was introduced to the state Wednesday, Wallingford would get just over $25.34 million in state funding during each of the 2013-14 and 2014-15 fiscal years. This means the town aid would remain at the same level its at in the current fiscal year.
Seeing that Wallingford would actually not lose any aid is good news, Dickinson said.
"I was concerned about losing funding," Dickinson said. "And if we’re staying even that’s good."
He noted that the town will still see some increase in spending give the cost of rising expenses.
Town officials are already involved in crafting a budget for Wallingford and a workshop is scheduled for Monday. Moving forward, Dickinson said town officials will analyze the governos' recommendations, but also take into consideration how the governor's budget has treated the town in the past.
Wallingford School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo agreed that keeping a flat budget was better than a loss of funding, noting as well the additional
"Now it’s just obviously waiting to see how he’s going to maintain the level of funding," Menzo said.
The news of the proposals also does not change anything in terms of the school district's budget planning.
"We continue to move forward to our budget process but since our bottom line isn’t being significantly adjusted," Menzo said.
School officials are looking at increasing the Wallingford education budget by 2.54 percent to $91.8 million. This is still a number that is being deliberated, Menzo said.
Click here for a full breakdown of the proposed Wallingford Board of Education budget.
