WINSTED — With the Winchester Board of Selectmen facing a $267,000 shortfall at the end of the 2008-09 fiscal year, Democratic Selectman Candy Perez says she’s been raising concerns for months, to no avail.

At a special meeting held last week to review overexpended line items, Perez said selectmen have been aware of underfunded line items, including police overtime, since January of this year.

"I have been talking about this for months," she said, pointing to monthly e-mails she has sent since the beginning of the year asking the board to address police overtime.

The board ultimately voted to table action on the overspent line items. Perez has since assembled a list of dates and notes from previous selectmen’s meetings in which she raised concerns about the budget.

Last December, Perez and fellow Democratic Selectman Michael Renzullo placed a series of budget-related items on the board’s agenda. In January, Perez e-mailed questions to Town Manager Keith Robbins, asking specifically about the police overtime line item, which was projected to be $160,000 in the red.

Perez and Renzullo continued to ask for budget discussions in March and April, providing their own analysis of the 2008-09 budget and accounts that were overexpended. On April 6, Perez sent a letter to the board expressing concern about the line items.

"Over the past eight months, and specifically at our recent meetings, we have asked for and had discussions regarding past, present and future budgets," Perez wrote. "As a selectman in my sixth year, I continue to be extremely concerned regarding the 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 budgets. [T]he lack of a specific outline to address the current $164K shortfall has me worried."

Perez said a revenue shortage in the 2009-10 budget may end up compounding the town’s problems.

The Board of Selectmen will ultimately have to make line item transfers to make up for the past year’s overages, but transfers of more than $15,000 will require approval by voters at referendum.