SHELTON — In what is to be its final budget workshop, the Board of Aldermen Monday went through the proposed 2008-09 city budget and made adjustments to many of its items.

But by press time, the board still hadn't addressed the proposed $62.8 million school budget, which educators say isn't enough to keep in place next year what is in place this year.

Board president John Anglace and vice-president John Papa met last week with Mayor Mark A. Lauretti to go over the changes the Board of Apportionment and Taxation made to the mayor's proposal. Anglace said he alsoe-mailed every department head to ask for input for any changes that the tax board had made. "I told them that if they didn't respond, then they were leaving it up to us," Anglace said. "If they did respond, we would take their comments into consideration."

And some of those responses did influence the board's decisions. Conservation Commission Chairman Tom Harbinson told Anglace in an e-mail that the cuts the tax board made weren't warranted. The tax board made the cuts based on the fact that the commission is so good at finding grant money to fund expenses rather than using taxpayer's money.

"He basically said, don't punish us for doing good things," Anglace said. The commission needed their requested funding in case grant money isn't available next year, he said, and if it is available, the budgeted funds go back into the General Fund.

Alderman Jack Finn argued that departments with a history of

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returning unspent funds to the city shouldn't receive their full requests. Instead, a portion of that money should go to the Board of Education, he said.

For example, the Police Department returned about $448,000 last year that was earmarked for payroll, Finn said.

But, Anglace said, that was because the department hasn't been able to secure seats in the state Police Academy for new recruits. If they can get those spots, then the department will need the funds to hire much-needed additional officers, he said.

Alderman Stan Kudej said the board shouldn't cut funding for improving the city' streets. "Some are in desperate need of repair," he said. "We really have to take a serious look at the streets in the downtown area that have been overlooked for years — we keep falling back."

To do that the Public Works Department needs to do a survey of all city streets so the board's Street Committee can determine priorities, Anglace said.

The board also added money to the budget for departments such as Economic Development. That commission's chairman, Fred Musante Sr., had objected to one $7,200 cut that would have eliminated two issues of the popular "Shelton Life" publication that goes out to residents four times a year.