Fairfield Leaders Continue To Clash On Budget

FAIRFIELD, CT — Fairfield officials continued the debate over the town’s 2021-22 budget this week, issuing dueling public statements after the $332.3 million spending plan was approved Monday by the Representative Town Meeting.

The budget passed with a 23-17 vote that fell mostly along party lines. The spending plan has a projected mill rate increase of 0.78 percent, which is set to be finalized 7:30 p.m. Thursday by the Board of Finance. The original version of the budget, presented several months ago by First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick, had an estimated mill rate hike of nearly 2 percent, but the plan saw over $3 million in cuts during the approval process.

“The Democratic caucus believes in smart investment, good government, and fiscal responsibility,” Democratic Caucus Leader Jill Vergara said in a prepared statement posted Tuesday on Facebook. “The budget proposed by the First Selectwoman accomplished none of that.”

Vergara accused Kupchick of proposing “the largest tax increase in over a decade” despite the town's access to millions in surplus funds, more than $30 million in federal stimulus money since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and a projected $1.1 million addition in state revenue. Vergara said the recent revaluation will result in tax increases of more than 3 percent for nearly 70 percent of Fairfield homeowners. She also took issue with Kupchick’s cuts to the conservation and town plan and zoning departments, as well as Kupchick’s decision to increase school board funding by $7.5 million instead of the $9.5 million the board requested.

“We could not support such bad governance and such a blatant attempt to pad the budget and raise the baseline for all budgets going forward,” Vergara said.

In response, Republican Town Committee Chairman Alex Plitsas issued a statement Wednesday that accused the Democratic Town Committee of being “at odds with the facts” and “hypocritical and contradictory.”

“Democratic Caucus Leader Vergara has chosen to put petty partisan politics over the good of our community for the past 16 months,” Plitsas said, noting the town had to make up $10 million in financial cliffs created by officials’ decision last year not to raise the mill rate.

In a news release Tuesday from the first selectwoman’s office, Kupchick argued failed motions for further budget cuts that were considered Monday by the town meeting would not have had “any material impact” on the tax rate. The town meeting's Monday budget discussions included several tense moments and terse exchanges.

“I was disappointed in the tone of some of the conversations that occurred last evening and in an unprecedented move of the moderator’s refusal to allow me to address the RTM prior to the budget discussion, which I requested earlier in the day,” Kupchick said.

Kupchick also in the news release touted her reorganization of town government, while Republican Caucus Leader Pamela Iacono noted the recently approved budget had the second-lowest mill rate increase in 15 years.