Public hearing set on $29.2 million overall municipal
budget for 2007-2008
The Town Council will hold a public hearing on a combined $29.2 million municipal
budget at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 7, in the Town Hall chamber.
At the same time, councilors will take public comment on a proposed $2.4
million bond issue for various town and school capital expenditures; and,
on a proposal to increase building permit fees to help pay for needed
improvements in the Town Center.
Councilors voted to set the budget for public hearing following a meeting
of the Finance Committee, a committee of the whole council, Wednesday.
The budget represents proposed spending for town, school, county and Community
Services for 2007-2008. The overall proposal is up 2.9 percent over this
year's budget, and carries with it a tax-rate increase of 1.92 percent, or
31 cents over this year's rate of $16.16 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
Mary Ann Lynch, chairman of the Finance Committee, credited the low tax-rate
increase to the Town Council's decision in 2004 to return 100 percent of
increases in state aid to education to the taxpayers.
The 2007-2008 budget proposal includes a $8.5 million spending plan for town
services, up 2.47 percent over this year; a $976,236 budget for Community
Services, an increase of 2.55 percent to be funded by user fees; a $936,220
assessment for county services, up 5.4 percent; and, an $18.8 million school
budget, up 3 percent over this year.
The school budget that will go to public hearing is $145,954 less than the
budget 3.8-percent increase budget presented to the Finance Committee earlier
this week. Following a workshop Monday, school officials reduced their proposed
budget increase to 3.24 percent by presenting a package of capital expenditures
that could be bonded, rather than included in the operating budget.
The items, covering building, mechanical and exterior upgrades; gym scoreboards,
nine rooms of classroom furniture; and, custodial equipment, total $102,150
and will be added to the $2.25 million bond proposal initially made by Town
Manager Micheal McGovern in March.
The bond issue will also include an additional $190,500 worth of school capital
expenses, including 36 classrooms of furniture, custodial/maintenance equipment
and seven automated external defibrillators. Councilors also agreed to remove
from the bond proposal $150,000 that had been slated to fund bleachers at
the new artificial turf field at the High School.
Net changes to the bonding proposal bring the total to $2,392,650.
If the 3-percent school budget increase passes, the School Department will
need to further reduce its operating budget proposal by $43,804.
Finance Committee members were divided on the amount to allow for school
expenditures, ultimately voting 4-3 to recommend a 3-percent increase for
public hearing.
Town Councilors David Backer, Anne Swift-Kayatta and Mary Ann Lynch, who
heads the Finance Committee, voted against the 3-percent increase. Each had
taken a pledge in 2004 to limit spending in the subsequent three years to
a rate no higher than the consumer price index.
Most recent data show the CPI to be 2.8 percent, a slight increase over the
2.5 percent councilors had been looking at during budget deliberations this
spring.
An initial motion for a 2.9-percent school budget increase, made by
Councilor Cynthia Dill and seconded by Lynch, failed 5-2. A subsequent motion
for a 3-percent increase, made by Council Chairman Paul McKenney and seconded
by councilor Jim Rowe, passed, with councilors Sara Lennon, Dill, Rowe and
McKenney voting in favor.
In addition to the budget hearing and hearing on the proposed bond issue,
councilors will take public comment May 7 on a proposal to increase building
permit fees from .7 percent of the project's value to 1 percent, with a portion
of the increase going to fund long-deferred improvement projects in the Town
Center.
Councilors are expected to take their final budget vote at their regular
meeting May 14.
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