North Haven Budget

Budget documents are in PDF format. If you can't read them, download Acrobat Reader here.

Comparative Budget Data

One of the best ways to see how North Haven is doing is to look at other towns. One source for comparative data is the state Office for Policy and Management's Municipal Fiscal Indicators report (November 2006) (you can quickly see how North Haven stacks up by searching for "North Haven," and North Haven has its own page, p. 199). Note that since this section was written, North Haven did finally change its non-health insurance specifications so that CIRMA could bid, and it won the bid.

Special Pension Plan: What stands out about North Haven here is its special pension plan for 6 elected officials, the only one of its kind in Connecticut and the only one in North Haven that had any substantial value in 2005 (the latest figures, see p. 28). Who are these 6 elected officials? Pursuant to Sect. 56-1 of the town ordinances, the First Selectman and the Town Clerk/Tax Collector get pensions that vest after only eight years of service, and they do not have to contribute anything. An incredibly good deal! No wonder the current Republican Town Committee chair Elinor Pedalino didn't want the town clerk job to leave her family. The 6 people are past (and current?) holders of these two positions. The prior First Selectman, Anthony Rescigno, just formally retired.

Education vs. Town Budgets: Page 12 of the MFI Report has averages for towns with a population of 10-30,000. How do we rate? In the latest year shown (2004-5), we spent $9,309 per pupil, 10% under the average of $10,194 (see p. 54). Of total government expenditures, education, on average, represents 61.9%. In North Haven, education represents only 52%. That means we spend more, relatively, on our town (as opposed to education) budget than most towns do.

Insurance and Pensions: Now here's where I had to do a lot of work, looking at other towns' budgets. I chose towns around our size, for which I could find comparable budget information. First, I looked at insurance and pension costs, which I felt were very high in North Haven. This was confirmed, as you can see in my comparative study of North Haven and six other towns. Both our insurance and our pensions are far larger than those of other towns our size. One reason is that most towns in Connecticut get their workers compensation and liability-automobile-property insurance through CIRMA, a non-profit arm of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, an organization on whose board First Selectman Kevin Kopetz sits. Mr. Kopetz seems to feel that North Haven can do better on its own, but the numbers do not seem to agree. Only now, at last, has CIRMA been included in insurance bidding.

Budget Comparison Between North Haven and Guilford

2007-2008 Approved Budget

Click here for the 2007-2008 Budget

Click here for the proposed budget changes (5-30-07)

For additional budget information, see the materials handed out to Board of Finance members, which can be found on the Board of Finance minutes page.

2006-2007 Approved Budget

Table of Contents & Index
Town Budget
Education Budget

Our town ranks 64 out of 169 in income per capita, which is 104% of the state average (see p. 75). However, our median household income (50% of households have more, 50% have less) ranks 60 and is 128% of the average, which means that we don't have as wide a range of incomes as many towns (a lot of poor people bring down the median income). North Haven is a solid middle-class town. But our per capita tax levy ranked 35 in 2005, and it has only gone up with revaluation, which is transfering much of the tax burden from businesses to residents (see p. 87). (2006-7; courtesy Doug Wood)