I would like to share my thoughts on the recently completed Milford city budget for fiscal 2007-2008 beginning July 1, 2007, and the role that Democratic aldermen took during these long and difficult deliberations.

First, it cannot be emphasized enough that the mayor of Milford has the "greatest responsibility" when it comes to annual municipal budget formulation. City department heads except for education submit their future year's budget requests to the mayor late in every calendar year. Then, the mayor takes all the city-side requests and formulates the "Mayor’s Recommended Budget," which is then submitted to the Board of Finance each January.

On the education side, the Board of Education creates its annual proposed budget under roughly the same time line, submitting it to the Board of Finance in a timely manner after January 1.

This year, on January 23, 2007, Milford Mayor James Richetelli, Jr., submitted his "recommended" city budget for 07-08 to the Board of Finance in the amount of $92.65 million, while the Board of Education submitted its request of $78.21 million.

In his budget message, the mayor wrote, “This budget reflects the bare essential resources needed to continue services at the same level.”

Essentially, Mayor Richetelli told Milford taxpayers in January that this was the best he could do with all the recommendations and requests from city department heads.

Therefore, adding in the Republican-controlled Board of Education's recommended budget, plus his own city-side budget, the recommended total by city Republicans who control all major boards and the mayor's office was $170.87 million, a "recommended" increase of more than 10% over fiscal year 2006-2007!

The proposed budget was then reviewed by the Republican-controlled Board of Finance, which after hearings and work sessions came up with its own "recommended" budget.

This year, the Board of Finance recommended a budget of $170,986,499 to the Board of Aldermen, where Republicans hold an 8-7 voting majority - a budget proposal still reflecting an increase of more than 10%.

As the aldermanic minority leader in Milford, beginning in late April I convened our caucus (Democratic aldermen) at my house for three weeks of intense and comprehensive reviews of every line item of city and education department budgets. When we had a question about an expenditure, we contacted the appropriate city or education department head.

At the end of these long, and sometimes divided caucus sessions, we did not always agree unanimously on the cuts we voted to make. However, we agreed to: 1. only make cuts that did not affect public safety, and, 2. we agreed that the proposed Board of Education increase could be reduced by $300,000 without severely affecting educational programs here.

The bottom line of our caucus: Democratic aldermanic identified about $3 million in proposed spending cuts from the Republican mayor’s and the Republican controlled Board of Education and Board of Finance "recommended" budgets.

Democratic Alderman Kerri Rowland then spent hours inputting our recommendations into a Powerpoint presentation, which we set up on a big screen on the first night of aldermanic deliberations on the budget.

We Democrats had a strategy, too. For every line item cut we proposed, we needed a motion to amend the majority party’s original motion to pass their recommended figure for that line item. This led to several very long evenings, with many votes on the amendments and original motions eliciting some lively back-and-forth exchanges as the minutes and hours ticked away.

Finally, after several budget sessions that extended well past midnight, and some frayed nerves on both sides, a combined city budget of $169,047,545 was passed on May 29. This was nearly $2 million less than the budget "recommended" by our Republican mayor and his Republican controlled Board of Education, all approved by the Republican controlled Board of Finance.

I would like to thank the members of the Democratic aldermanic caucus for their perseverance and dedication in fighting for the taxpayers of the city of Milford, who depend on their elected officials to run efficient and affordable city government and schools.