At Sharon’s Board of Finance Budget Meeting last week, more than half the time allotted for discussion was devoted to the Connecticut statute everyone loves to hate, Minimum Budget Requirement, or MBR.

First established by the Connecticut General Assembly in 1975, it was, with the best of intentions, meant to ensure that towns and school districts, particularly those with lower- or under-performing schools, used monies earmarked for education for that purpose and no other.

But over time MBR compliance has morphed into a remarkably complicated bureaucratic process and led to a wealth of unintended consequences. The basic tenet of MBR says that a school cannot make a budget that is less than the budget it had the previous year unless it can meet a set of “exceptions.” These exceptions have many requirements.

The bottom line: Schools and the towns their students come from do not control their own education budgets. They must make budgets that meet the state’s requirements, and cannot make budgets that reflect the actual spending they plan to do in any given year.

The frustration this leads to — for parents, taxpayers, town officers, educators, and board of education officials — is very real. The solution lies in getting the General Assembly to change the statute to return budgetary control, or at least more budgetary control, to communities across Connecticut. Local boards of education can’t fix this by themselves, the legislature has to step up.

If you are concerned about MBR, contact your state assembly representatives, Maria Horn or Stephen Harding, on their websites, or Kevin Chambers, who runs the MBR program, at kevin.chambers@ct.gov.

 

 

Another topic that surfaced in Sharon during the budget deliberations —  should town governments help support the nonprofit organizations that bring services and cultural enrichment to their communities or should these groups be left to go about their own fundraising? It’s an interesting and somewhat surprising question. Many U.S. nonprofit groups get support from, and work collaboratively with, government entities at the local, state, and even federal level.

Institutions such as the Hotchkiss Library of Sharon and the Sharon Historical Society help anchor and build the communities they serve, communities of passionate readers, of life-long students, of families and friends, of energetic and engaged volunteers, providing many different opportunities for Sharon residents to connect with each other around shared interests and concerns.

These activities align with the town’s responsibility to promote the public good. Town support of its nonprofit partners is not frivolous, it’s essential.

Latest News

Village will not pursue local ICE law; packed meeting reflects division

A crowd of 55 people crowded into the NorthEast-Millerton Library Annex for a marathon discussion regarding placing limits on police interaction with federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Photo by Aly Morrissey

MILLERTON — On Tuesday, July 29, the Village of Millerton Board of Trustees held a widely anticipated public meeting to discuss whether to limit cooperation between the Millerton Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The meeting followed a resident-led request to consider a local law aimed at protecting immigrants, including those without legal documentation.

Originally scheduled to be held at the village offices on North Elm Avenue, the meeting was moved last-minute to the NorthEast–Millerton Library Annex to accommodate a crowd of 55 — nearly triple the attendance at the initial discussion in May.

Keep ReadingShow less
Millerton’s Presbyterian church sold in May

Habitat for Humanity assisted in the construction and sale of this house at 14 Rudd Pond Road for $392,000.

Christine Bates

MILLERTON — Official Dutchess County property transfers for the four months ending in May are fascinating from the sale of the former Presbyterian Church on Main Street for $420,000 to the $300,000 sale of 8.3 acres of the historic Perotti farm for $300,000 where major barn restoration is now underway.

Actively listed properties at the end of July include 14 parcels of land ranging in price from $60,000 for a five-acre lot to six parcels over a million dollars. 15 single family homes are on the market including an $11,750,000 estate on Moadock Road and four village homes for under $500,000.

Keep ReadingShow less
Storms down trees, knock out power for downtown Millerton

MILLERTON — Heavy rain brought down trees on Park Avenue, South Center Street and Century Boulevard, causing blackouts across the village on Friday, July 25.

The Millerton Moviehouse cancelled film showings for the afternoon following the outages, as stated in a release sent out to Moviehouse supporters over email Friday afternoon.

Keep ReadingShow less