The Relentless Drive Toward The Mean

By Ellen Russell Beatty
Ponder This

Ellen Russell Beatty

In strategic planning and budgetary circles during my professional life we referred to flat budgeting as the relentless drive to the mean.

The budget process from start to finish is a planning tool. Done properly, as in the case of Milford’s Board of Education request, it is a strategic planning exercise that informs all participants and can be used to inform the public. Indeed, this is a primary purpose of budgetary hearings. Residents and elected officials may be expected and encouraged to ask the question: why are they receiving an increase when I have to cut back? The administration in any town has the responsibility to answer these questions, requiring the hard work of authentic discussion. Elected officials must meet the responsibility to help the community understand and interpret budget requests appropriately.

The role of the legislative body, the Board of Aldermen, is not to swear allegiance to a particular administration or to cut taxes and keep the mill rate flat. The goal is to provide essential services while remaining fiscally prudent. Milford’s democratic record has been stellar in this regard over a course of a decade, and we should be very proud. The Board of Aldermen has been an effective steward of the public purse and a generous supporter of education.

It is no longer feasible or desirable to keep an overly restricted mill rate steady without an examination of revenue streams. Flexible financial planning is helpful and necessary, but it is not the best practice to decide on particular rates or numbers and then engage in a budget process artificially designed to hold to these preset parameters.

Flat budgeting is where the real hazard lies. Requests for cutbacks across the board are especially unkind to the future. The very act of thinking about the best future for the organization, department or agency is eclipsed by the immediate need to focus on the now of how and what to cut back. The attention shifts to survival or getting through without chaos.

Sadly, this paring away of ideas and the resultant stagnation is then used to determine future funding. Research, experience and data demonstrate that what is cut during flat budget allocation are the ingredients to success. Without supportive services and resources, performance and outcomes start to diminish.

One memory stands as an example of flat budgeting damage over time. The budget read as mostly labor and not much else. The real effect of the flat budget over a mere 10-year period had been to eliminate from the document all but the basic costs of salaries to run the expert enterprise. Cutting what was then known as “low-hanging fruit” had reduced the request to a stripped-down document by the request stage. Needs and plans were no longer evident. A glance by unseasoned eyes might inaccurately conclude that not much damage had been done.

Milford is commanding us to pay attention. Residents do not want mediocrity in their school system; no drive to the mean for our children. Parents want to continue the current path to excellence of Milford schools. They are proud, engaged and determined to provide the best for their children while retaining all progress made over the last several years.

We must listen to the kids through the voices of the community. Teachers are not a “cost” to the system of education; they are the system. Providing a flat budget, knowing that contractual obligations will not be covered, is a sleight of hand pure and simple. Costs for health care and benefits for each full-time position are funded by the city side of the budget but should not translate into a tithing during the next budget request.

I am impressed by and grateful for the community uproar regarding the Board of Education budget. It has highlighted a fault line in the budgeting process that affects all units across the city.

It is spring all year round in the teaching world. Let’s give a round of applause along with appropriate, sustainable resources to those who make the flowers bloom.

Dr. Ellen Russell Beatty is in her fourth term on the Milford Board of Aldermen. She served seven years as Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs at Southern Connecticut State University, and also served as interim Academic Vice president, Dean of Health & Human Services and Director of Faculty Development. In addition to the broad perspective and a multitude of skills required of high-level administrators, her areas of special expertise lie in strategic planning, accreditation, assessment and planning and budgetary allocation.