BOF Votes to Move $490k from BOE Budget to BOS
- Theresa Cramer
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
After weeks of wrangling over $490,000 allocated for debt service in the Board of Education’s (BOE) budget, the Board of Finance (BOF) voted for what seemed, at least to me, like the inevitable and simplest solution to a fight over these funds. As a reminder, the BOE voted to move $400,000 out of its debt service line to save positions before the last referendum. This did not sit well with the BOF or the Board of Selectmen. After the BOE fully understood the ramifications of this decision, they reversed it. That brings us to the May 8, 2025, special BOF meeting.
First Selectman Bill Morrison kicked it off with a proposal to move that $490,000 from the BOE budget to the town budget. This is a wash as far as taxpayers and the mill rate are concerned. Frankly, it seems the logical way to have done it all along. Why give the BOE money just to ask for it back later, so the town can pay the solar panel lease? It’s always struck me as inefficient and unnecessary. It's also been noted that when the BOE ran short on funds in past years, it would ask previous town CFOs if they could reduce their contributions to the solar panel payments. Now, that line item will be predictably funded.
Still, not everyone saw it that way.
Stafford resident Brian Bagley spoke at the meeting, expressing concern that the schools aren’t paying their fair share for a project they benefit from. BOF member Harold Blake Hatch countered, “The benefit of the solar is to the taxpayer.” The project was meant to lower the tax rate for residents, and the credits are intended to be put to the best use. Whether the payments come out of the BOS or BOE budgets, the citizens of Stafford are the ones left paying.
Because the $490,000 is allocated for debt service, it does not count toward calculations for the minimum budget requirement (MBR). Generally, MBR keeps districts from making large cuts to school budgets. As debt payments are not related directly to student services (and, in theory, are designed to be paid off eventually), they do not count.
For now, the schools will continue to benefit from the same amount of credits, but the BOE meeting earlier in the week indicated the board still has plenty of questions about the solar lease. While the list of questions was long, and answers are still to come, the most pressing remains around who receives the most benefit. During the BOE meeting, the school’s Director of Finance, Vicky DeSantis, said preliminary research showed the schools will receive an estimated $251,470.72 in credits. This is considerably less than the $490,000 allocated in the ‘24-’25 budget, and the BOF has asked to see the bills. DeSantis is projecting this year’s electric bills to be around $351,000.
Still, there is a lot of confusion about how to truly measure the savings, and you can bet the topic will resurface at future meetings. Given all of the back-and-forth over who agreed to what over the past 10 years, an MOU that details and formalizes this agreement is warranted.
The BOF eventually voted to send a flat-funded budget to referendum, moving the $490,000 from one side of the budget to the other, and allocating the same solar credits to the BOE. Here are the new numbers:
Town Budget - $16,769,589
School Budget - $30,595,855
Total - $47,365,444
Mill Rate Increase - .12 mill