Norwalk BET tentatively approves $451.5M operating budget after hours of public comment on schools, libraries and transit

The Board of Estimate and Taxation on March 26 tentatively approved a $451,458,000 operating budget — a 3.3% increase from the prior year — after a public hearing in which dozens of residents, parents, educators and civic leaders urged increased school funding and protested proposed cuts to libraries and transit.

The vote, taken at the end of the hearing at Norwalk City Hall, passed 6-1. The budget as proposed keeps the Board of Education cap at 4% while setting the city's portion at about 2'+% and will be transmitted as the tentative operating budget to the Common Council for review before final mill-rate decisions in May.

The debate matters because many of the speakers tied the tentative budget's line items to direct services: classroom teachers, counselors and specialized supports for students; part-time library staff who have not received raises in a decade; and Norwalk Transit District services that riders say are at a crossroads as the agency prepares a major network redesign.

Parents and teachers repeatedly urged the BET to back the Board of…