Stamford Fiscal Committee FY2026-27 Budget Presentations – March 12, 2026
Stamford Fiscal Committee Meeting: FY2026-27 Budget Presentations
On March 12, 2026, the Stamford Board of Finance Fiscal Committee (Co-Chairs Morrison and Zachary) held a meeting to hear budget overviews from several city departments for the proposed Fiscal Year 2026-27 budget. Presentations covered the Office of Policy and Management (OPM), Grants Office, Early Childhood, Purchasing, Controller’s Office, Assessments, Revenue Services, and Tax Collection. Committee members asked questions about revenue assumptions, grant sourcing, collection rates, technology modernization, and online payment fees.
Discussion Items
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Office of Policy and Management (OPM) – Elda Sinani
- OPM’s total proposed budget is $38,170 (2.7% increase) driven by salary adjustments and contractual obligations.
- Total proposed city revenue is $74.74 million (2.32% increase), with property taxes comprising 91.7% of revenue.
- The property tax levy net of reserves is projected at $672.6 million (6.79% increase) due to education funding, labor agreements, and operational growth.
- Key revenue changes: departmental revenue +$1.9 million; property taxes +$467,000 (consistent with mayor’s 5.1% projection); interest income -$500,000 due to lower rates.
- OPM is implementing a new budget software database with key performance indicators and seeking GFOA certification by next spring.
- Reserves total $35.38 million, including Harbor Point TIF Reserve. Representative Cruz questioned the need for a reserve for BLT (Building and Land Technology).
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Grants Office – Anita Carpenter
- The grants office manages approximately 300 active awards; budget increase of $31,812 (4.2%) for staff adjustments.
- Office supports oversight of special revenue streams (opioid settlement, NIPS, tax abatements).
- A $50,000 request for digital archiving services was not included in the mayor’s proposed budget but remains a need.
- In response to Representative Morrison, Carpenter stated that the office has not been significantly impacted by federal executive orders or shutdowns, but Board of Education portfolios were affected.
- Representative Wapine asked about AI use: Carpenter noted AI is used for aligning grant narratives with NOFOs, improving proficiency and some efficiency, but requires careful verification.
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Early Childhood – Danesha Brown
- Budget is 95% grant-funded through Early Start CT/local governance partner (Cradle to Career). City funding of $22,424 covers salary/benefits not paid by grants; state requires a $50,000 match for non-state-funded programs.
- Merged programs into Early Start CT; community tables identify gaps and improvement plans.
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Purchasing – Eric Larson
- Department is under $5,000 increase; as of March, issued 33 bids and 49 RFPs in current fiscal year.
- Top spenders include school construction projects (West Hill, Roxbury). Representative O'Pine asked about concentration of spend; Larson estimated the top five RFPs represent over 50% of total purchase order amount.
- Challenges include Oracle system upgrades (Redwood) and retraining users.
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Controller’s Office – Teresa Viscarillo
- Budget increase of $113,529 (5.5%), primarily contractual (about 4%).
- FY24 audit published two weeks ago; FY25 audit begins end of March with completion anticipated mid-July 2026.
- Internal auditor position reports to Director of Administration, not the Controller.
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Assessments – Greg Stackpole
- The assessment grant list grew to $27.433 billion ($106 million increase) with real estate (new apartments) and motor vehicles (more/expensive vehicles) driving growth.
- Overall assessor budget decreased due to lower contracted services for tax appeals from 2022 revaluation.
- New veterans’ exemptions (Local Ordinance 1323) will require overtime.
- 2027 revaluation RFP issued; income/expense letters mailed to commercial property owners.
- Representative Walston noted the increase in motor vehicle tax revenue conflicts with transit goals.
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Revenue Services – Meg Benjamin (new director)
- Focus: centralizing revenue collection, improving system integration, updating cashiering policies (last revised 1997).
- Non-salary items unchanged. In-person transactions remain common for beach/marina permits to avoid processing fees.
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Tax Collection – Bill Napolitano
- Collection efforts expanded: using outside attorneys and collection agency for delinquent personal property accounts; seeing good returns.
- Online payment fees: 2.99% for credit cards, $0.95 for e-checks (minimum $3.95). Negotiating to reduce fees.
- Representative Walston suggested a satellite office or Saturday hours for payments; Napolitano said it could be discussed with Revenue Services.
- Representative Cruz asked for delinquency rates; Napolitano will provide figures later.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken; the meeting was informational for committee members preparing to deliberate the FY2026-27 budget.
- Several follow-up items were requested:
- Tax Collector to provide delinquency/uncollected revenue data (Representative Cruz).
- The committee will consider digital archiving funding for the Grants Office and further integration of revenue systems.
- The next steps involve compiling questions and conducting further review before a final budget vote.
Meeting Transcript
In that case, please go ahead and start, Elda. Thank you. Um, good evening, um, co-chairmen of fiscal committee, members of the board. If anyone is present, and uh the administration team there. My name is Elda Sinani. Um, I'm the director of Office of Policy and Management. This evening I'll present the 2627 budget overview for office of policy and management, including um some uh departments responsibilities. Uh, I'll talk just a high level, some accomplishment. And uh also I'll discuss the revenue projection and assumption um that are included in our proposed in mayor's proposed budget for 2627. So go ahead. Um so the role of Office of Policy and Management is to develop operating and capital budget, financial forecasting analysis, revenue and expenditure monitoring, and policy and fiscal guidance for city employees and elected officials. Our goal is to ensure that um the city's budget is fiscally responsible, transparent and aligned with priorities of mayor, administration, and the community. Go slide. Um this is a department overview, which is our org chart. Um, we have a total staff of um 10 people, seven are full-time position, one part-time, and one permanent part-time. Now, under OPM, it's also the mail and duplicating center, which is um with two staff members, it uh are in the mail and duplicating center. So um I will uh go ahead in the next slide. So OPM operating budget uh for it's only an increase of 2.7 percent or 38,170. Uh the drivers are salary adjustment and contractual obligation for our employees. And um the next slide. Uh okay. This is what OPM's budget is. Um, I will talk about uh just a couple accomplishments uh and probably just a quick overview of the department. So may I I could you point to which page in the budget so we can follow along with your analysis? The uh org chart, it's uh in page I believe 38 of the book, a budget book, proposed budget book. Great, thank you. And page 39. Thank you. Sorry. Welcome, no, no problem. So as you see, it's 2.7 percent uh compared to the current fiscal year. And um our focus is uh to remain on operating efficiently while supporting the city board, uh cities board of finance and uh financial and fiscal management responsibilities. Even though, as um, we are a small team. We are um our responsibilities are to prepare uh capital budget and uh operating budget. Uh, we help also with WPCA budget as well. So um, in addition to preparing just the budget, uh OPM plays a central uh role in fiscal management throughout the year the year. This includes such as managing requests for additional appropriation, monitoring the city's contingency funds, coordinating the with the controller's office, grants office and auditors on year-end requirements and compliance with the city PCART policy. We manage employee salaries uh and benefit allocations, working closely with uh HR department. Um all these responsibilities help to ensure that the city maintains accurate financial um reporting. Um looking ahead for fiscal 2627, I just want to uh mention uh a couple uh strategic initiatives that we have. One of the most significant initiatives is the implementation of a new budget software um database, and we are in the process, which will modernize our budget development and reporting system by incorporating uh key performance indicators, which never done before for the city of Stanford, and strategic initiatives for each department. We'll update as well the fiscal policies. We are in the process of that, which would be included in the budget book. So you'll see not only this budget book the next year, but you'll see a comprehensive budget book when they include you know, charts and uh analysis, fiscal policies, and uh key performance and indicators. And uh, we have our goal is for the next um probably spring. We have will be certified by GFOA or uh government financial officers. So that is about uh OPM. Um the next slide. I'm just going to provide you an overview of revenues, uh total proposed revenue with 74.74 million, like number increase from prior year is 1.69 million or 200 uh or 2.32 percent. Um this represent a moderate growth of approximately 2.3 percent, reflecting a conservative revenue assumptions and responsible fiscal planning uh by uh administration and our office.
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