Worthy Causes or Forced Charity?

Town taxpayers in the next fiscal year will contribute more than $850,000 to outside agencies - mostly non-profits - and a Board of Finance member is questioning whether the contributions amount to "forced charity" that taxpayers shouldn't have to fund.

"Essentially, we're forcing charitable contributions onto the taxpayers," Robert B. Bellitto, Jr., a Republican Board of Finance member, said during the board's Thursday night review of the proposed 2010-11 town budget. "I do think, in the future, we need to consider the whole protocol of who gets on the list and how they get on the list."

"Due to economic reasons, I'm not going to [vote to] approve them this year," Bellitto said.

Bellitto's concern was shared by Board of Finance member Ken Brachfeld, a Democrat, who also spoke to the issue. "How does someone get on the list? How does someone get off the list? Who does someone talk to to get on the list?" Brachfeld asked. "I'd love to delve into this to see if we can get a little more clarity."

First Selectman Ken Flatto, who compiles the proposed town budget every year that is reviewed and voted on by the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance and Representative Town Meeting, said each of the groups on the list had been "totally vetted" by previous Board of Finance members before they got on the list and that most of the groups provide a service to Fairfield residents.

Flatto said Pequot Library, a privately-owned library in the town's Southport neighborhood that is open to the public, and Fairfield Counseling Services, a Penfield Road non-profit that assists the mentally ill, received the most funding.

Pequot Library is due to receive $350,000 in 2010-11 - $15,000 less than the library requested and $30,000 less than it received in 2008-09 - and Fairfield Counseling Services is due to receive $175,000 in 2010-11, which is $15,000 less than it requested and $15,000 less than it received in 2008-09. The 2010-11 amounts for Pequot Library and Fairfield Counseling Services are identical to the amounts they receive in the current fiscal year.

Daniel Snydacker, executive director of Pequot Library, wasn't available Friday afternoon to speak to the importance of the town's annual contribution, but, in Pequot Library's request for a town contribution in 2010-11, the library says taxpayers fund only 30 percent of the library's operating budget and that the town contribution helps to offset "the cost of soaring energy and health care costs."

Fairfield Counseling Services, a state-licensed outpatient mental health and psychiatric clinic, says in its request that it provided 6,748 counseling, psychiatric, and substance abuse evaluation and treatment sessions to 828 clients and their families in the 2008-09 fiscal year.

"Since no one who is eligible for outpatient services is denied treatment, we rely on the funding from the town to assist us in helping our low- to modest-income clients who pay minimum or no fees to receive services," the agency says in its appeal for funds in 2010-11.

Samuel Lazinger, a former chairman of the Board of Finance, said tonight that he didn't recall the board ever adding a non-profit agency to the list while he was on the board for nearly 10 years in the 1990s.

"I don't remember any of them coming to us brand-new. We inherited them," Lazinger said.

Lazinger added that all the groups funded by the town were "responsible local agencies that complemented town agencies."

"They were not redundant...If they didn't do it, we would do it," Lazinger said of services provided by the non-profits. "It's cheaper to hire an outside agency than do it on your own."

Lazinger said the Board of Finance, while he served, usually kept the funding levels at the same amount from year to year or cut back on the funding. But he added that non-profits in the current economic climate are getting hit from all sides.

The other groups on the 2010-11 list and their funding amounts are:

Regional Youth and Adult Substance Abuse Program, $15,000.

The Discovery Museum in Bridgeport, $30,000.

Greater Bridgeport Regional Planning Agency, $18,053.

The Connecticut Audubon Society at Fairfield, $15,000.

Greater Bridgeport Transit Authority, $30,000.

Fairfield Museum and History Center, $32,500.

Fairfield Veterans Advisory and Information Services, $3,420.

Southwestern Connecticut Regional Emergency Medical Services Council, $3,040.

Southwest Regional Mental Health Board, $9,476.

Southwestern Regional Communications Center, $49,367.

Janus Center for Youth in Crisis in Bridgeport, $5,000.

Grasmere by the Sea, $75,000.

Sullivan-McKinney Elder Housing, $5,000.

Fairfield Arts Council, $10,000.

The Kennedy Center in Bridgeport, $7,000.

The Mill River Wetland Committee, $5,000.

The Pilot House, $8,000.

The Center for Women and Families in Bridgeport, $6,100.

All of the amounts proposed to be given to the groups in 2010-11 are the same as the amounts they receive this year, with the exception of the Southwestern Regional Communications Center, which would receive $154 less than it receives this year; Grasmere by the Sea, which would receive $5,000 less than it receives this year; and Sullivan-McKinney Elder Housing, which would receive $5,000 more than it receives this year.

The Board of Finance voted 6-3 to approve the list, which totals $851,956, and it now heads for a final vote by the Representative Town Meeting in early May.