Finance Board Set to Approve Budget with 2.3 Percent Increase

There isn’t a line in the 2012-13 fiscal budget that the Board of Finance hasn’t scrutinized since first beginning their workshops almost two weeks ago. It appears that after $1.06 million in reductions, most small items, members are ready to make a unanimous recommendation to the Town Council.

A fourth budget workshop Tuesday evening in the led to the reduction of an additional $35,000 in items from the combined Town Government and Board of Education budgets and the board came to a consensus to approve a $128.74 million budget for the upcoming year.

“The real vote will come (tonight). Today we came to a consensus, but it was still just a workshop to review our changes and make any final adjustments to the budget,” said Finance Chairman John Leary.

The 2012-13 combined budget was originally presented to the Board of Finance at $129.8 million, but a reduction of $850,000 on the town side and an additional reduction of $215,000 to the budget reduced the overall increase to 2.3 percent over the current fiscal year.

Most of the reductions made were relatively small – the board made some reductions to line items in the $1,000 to $5,000 range – but a fewer larger items were reduced further as well. By consensus, the board eliminated $115,000 in overtime, $120,000 in the capital improvements line for and $50,000 from the contingency fund.

The most noticeable change to the upcoming budget, however, doesn’t lie within any particular line item. The biggest change is a move to a balanced budget, which promotes transfers and a reduction of appropriations in order to promote healthier operation.

Details of how the town will implement a long-term plan to provide a balanced budget beyond the upcoming fiscal year have not been finalized yet.

“The proposed budget manages a fully funded technology implementation plan and three new employees on the town side,” Leary said. “We had some real substantive discussions on the town budget and specific policies that govern our budget.”

The budget reductions also included $215,000 in reductions from the Board of Education budget, although finance members do not have statutory ability to discuss education line items. The $82.44 million education budget represents around 70 percent of the overall proposed 2012-13 fiscal budget.

Joseph Labieniec, board vice-chairman, said the impact on the taxpayer would be about a 0.63 mill increase after adjusting the mill rate to the recent revaluation. This would signify an increase of $0.63 per $1,000 of assessed property.

Determining how it might affect the taxpayer this year isn’t as simple, however. After a revaluation saw an eight percent decline in property values across the board, some residents will see their bill change considerably.

The revaluation process will be difficult on some families, finance member Anthony Casale said, and was a large reason why he and others requested a fourth budget session for the first time ever. In all, the board spent 11 hours analyzing potential budget reductions since completing their departmental review earlier this month.

“Some residents will not be hit quite as hard, while others will see bills which could amount to as much as a 12 percent increase depending on individual revaluations,” Casale said. “When they come screaming, we need to be able to assure them that we did everything we could to maintain services and keep their tax bills down.”