Time is flying – seems I just posted but much has been
happening. The budget has consumed
most of the past two months – we have another Town Meeting on Monday, June 25th with a referendum the following Monday, July 2nd.
The Board of Finance will present a revised plan of expenditures which, when
compared to the current approved budget,
increases the Education budget by 2.6%, the General Operating and Capital
budget by 4.5% and the debt schedule by 42%.
The main differences between this year and the proposed
budget are:
Education - $314,110
increase in salary (driven by teacher contracts), forecasted transportation
expenses and special education costs.
General Government
Operating and Capital - $216,311 increase from including storm damage
mitigation projects (installation of box culverts) for Northwest Corner Road and Pinewoods Road and repairs to the Town Hall parking lot and brook
retaining wall (none of this is reimburseable from FEMA). If these projects
were not included in the budget, the General Operating and Capital budget would
be 4.5% less than this year.
Debt – increased
$393,685 all due to a planned payment of $400,000 on the bridge
repair/replacement loan of $1,975,000. We are planning to roll the balance due
($1,375,000) into another short term note. The bridge repairs are eligible and
have been approved for reimbursement by FEMA up to 75%.
You can see the latest proposed Revision C of the budget on
the Town website – just click on the following link:
If your questions are not answered at the Town Meeting
Monday night, please drop me a note and I’ll be glad to help you with it.
The Board of Finance
has set the mill rate for 2012-13 at 25.25 mills. This represents an overall property tax increase of 4.5%.
Even though the mill increase from 20.29 (current) to 25.25 looks like a lot
more than 4.5%, we really need to look at the calculated tax for the assessment
of the property. Consequently in the current year, we expected to collect
$12,314,349 in property taxes (at 20.29 mills against a Grand List of $626
million). But next year, we expect to collect $12,862,755 (at 25.25 mills
against a Grand List of $525 million). With the Grand List devalued by $100
million, the Town needs an equivalent tax adjustment of 3.86 mills just to get
us the same amount of taxes as this year to pay for expenditures.
Additional information on the tax rate and how it may affect
your property tax bill can be found in a message from the Assessor on the Town
website – you can click here to see it:
Again, if you have any questions give me a call
(860-334-9204) or e-mail me through this blog.
More to follow on the budget and other things happening in
town!
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