New Branford Budget: 2.8% Mil Increase
The Representative Town Meeting (RTM) has approved a $96.5 milllion 2012-'13 town budget, which bumps mill rate up by 0.68 mills to 24.95 mills, for a 2.8 percent hike.
Town Finance Director James Finch released some sample property assessments to help show old tax costs versus new (the owner of a $110,300-assessed Jefferson Woods condo, for example, will go from paying $2,677 in property taxes to paying $2,752); but readers of The Sound can also figure their new rate by plugging their home's assessed value and the 24.95 mill rate into our new property tax calculator at www.zip06.com/branford.
At the town budget vote meeting on May 8, the RTM unanimously approved the RTM Education Committee's recommendation to cut $100,000 from the proposed school budget. In March, the Board of Finance (BOF) approved a 2.5 percent year-to-year school budget increase. The $100,000 cut approved May 8 creates an annual increase of just less than 2.3 percent. The 2012-'13 school operating and capital budget will be $50,735,804.
Prior to the RTM vote, Board of Education (BOE) Chair Frank Carrano spoke, saying $300,000 had already been sliced from the originally proposed school budget by the BOF. Carrano said cutting an additional $100,000 would affect needed advancements, including more school-based pre-K and adding world languages to the 4th-grade curriculum. He also noted Branford had just learned it will be receiving a $65,000 state benefit via the Education Reform Act and the money will go the town, not the BOE, next year. He asked the RTM to consider the $65,000 as an offset against the need to cut $100,000.
"A cut of even $100,000 is going to force the board to have to look very carefully at our ability to move forward?There is very little in the budget that we can reduce," said Carrano. "It's $100,000, but it's $100,000 on top of $300,000 that is going to have the consequences."
On the town side of the budget, the RTM approved $15,000 in spending cuts. The 2012-'13 government budget totals $45,794,876.
Combining schools and government, the official total figure approved for the Town of Branford 2012-'13 budget is $93,530,680. By charter, the BOF will next vote to officially set the new tax rate, which will become effective with the new fiscal year beginning July 1.