Cheshire officials outline $15 million budget shortfall; public urges protecting schools and services

Town Manager Sean Kimball and Cheshire Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Jeff Solon told residents Wednesday night that the Town of Cheshire faces roughly a $15 million gap while preparing the proposed fiscal 2025–26 operating budget.

Kimball said the shortfall stems chiefly from lost state and federal aid, use of one-time funds in the current year and rising debt service tied to recently approved school construction. “We are losing a combined $900,000 this year” in the payment in lieu of taxes and the education cost sharing grant, Kimball said, and the town also lost municipal revenue sharing and a motor vehicle tax-cap reimbursement that together account for several hundred thousand dollars more.

The shortfall, Kimball said, totals about $15,000,000 when combined with expenditure increases: a $6.2 million (about 7 percent) increase in the Board of Education budget, roughly $2.6 million in higher debt service and roughly $1.5 million of recommended increases for town departments. Kimball presented the arithmetic that a mill in Cheshire is worth just over $4 million, and that the gap equates to roughly 3.7 mills under current grand-list assumptions.

Nut graf: The presentation set the stage for public comment on how to close that gap. Officials described roughly $5 million in proposed revenue increases and expenditure reductions already under consideration, leaving further decisions on cuts, staffing and services for the council and the Board of Education to decide in coming weeks. Residents urged officials to prioritize classroom staffing, paraeducators and extracurriculars while also offering suggestions for new revenue or cost controls.

Kimball enumerated the principal revenue losses the town started this budget with: about $900,000 lost across payment-in-lieu and education cost-sharing (ECS) grants; a $500,000 municipal revenue-sharing line that was not funded; roughly $1,000,000 lost because the town is not eligible for the motor vehicle tax-cap reimbursement after revaluation lowered the mill rate; $1,300,000 in ARPA funds drawn in the current year; and about $1,000,000 of general-fund equity used previously. “Taken altogether, that's $4,700,000 of lost revenue on those big, big ticket items,” Kimball said.

On the expenditure side, Kimball and Dr. Solon described the drivers of higher costs. Dr. Solon told the meeting that in the Board of Education’s budget exercise a potential $2.02 million in reductions would include about $440,000 from certified salaries (which he said would equate to the elimination of roughly 4.5 teaching positions plus retirements), a $341,000 reduction in instructional expenses (about a 15 percent rollback in many accounts) and a $783,000 reduction in maintenance and operations, where some preventive maintenance would be deferred because three buildings will be replaced next year.

“We always start as far away from students as we possibly can,” Dr. Solon said, but he warned that the magnitude of reductions being discussed makes touching staffing and programming difficult to avoid. The superintendent said the district’s per-pupil spending remains competitive: “If we spent the average, our budget would be $5,000,000 higher.”

Officials offered options they and the council have already discussed to reduce the gap: roughly $1.4 million in revenue adjustments (fee increases for recreation and pool, higher interest and building permit estimates, and use of certain gift funds), $628,000 of identified general-government cuts, $300,000 reduced debt service from bond sale premiums, and cutting the annual capital nonrecurring contribution from about $1 million to $500,000. With those items, Kimball said, the council has identified “over $5,000,000 of adjustments” from the initial $15 million hole.

Kimball presented a target mill-rate scenario that would lower the initially-projected tax increase from the single-digit doubledigits he’d first shown to a proposed mill rate of 29.87. Under the presented calculation, the average residential tax bill would rise from $8,175 to $8,893—an increase residents repeatedly called unaffordable.

Public comment focused heavily on schools and services. Dozens of residents spoke or submitted written comments urging officials to protect teachers, paraeducators and middle-school extracurriculars and to avoid raising class sizes. “Please do everything you can to maintain the smaller class size in the K–6 level,” said Bob Behrver of Squire Hill Road. Several parents said individual classrooms—particularly at Chapman Elementary—have been as large as 23 students this year and that teacher turnover has harmed learning.

Other residents urged broader fiscal restraint, support for seniors on fixed incomes, and creative revenue ideas. Tom Bartley asked whether North End development revenues—Kimball estimated roughly $5.5 million combined—would materially offset future increases; Kimball said those revenues are not projected to start until 2027 and that much of the near-term increase is a 20-year debt-service trajectory tied to the two new elementary schools approved by referendum.

Questions also touched on employee benefits. Officials said the town and school system are self-insured and have reviewed plan designs; Kimball noted health-care costs are a growing share of the budget (medical benefits were about 14 percent of the Board of Education budget a decade ago and about 20 percent now). Commenters with insurance backgrounds urged periodically going out to bid and examining plan design further.

Several commenters proposed alternatives such as corporate sponsorships for public spaces, energy projects (including solar), four-day municipal workweeks and expanded property-tax relief for eligible seniors and disabled residents. The town manager and councilors noted an existing needs-based tax-relief program, with an application window open through May 15, and said the council will consider increasing that support.

Votes and motions: The meeting concluded with a motion to adjourn. Councilor Walsh moved to adjourn; Councilor Jenks seconded; the chair called for the vote and said, “all in favor, we are adjourned.” No formal votes on the budget were taken at the hearing.

Ending: Town Council and Board of Education members will continue the budget process in follow-up meetings and workshops. Officials said further decisions on mill rate, specific reductions and revenue changes will come after additional deliberations, with the council and the Board of Education returning to formal votes at later dates.