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02/14/2017 02:45 PMThe Board of Selectmen (BOS) approved the proposed fiscal year 2017-’18 town operating budget of $28,738,999—a $664,742 or 2.37 percent increase in spending—at the special BOS meeting on Feb. 10. The budget will now move to the Board of Finance (BOF) for further consideration.
The 2.37 percent increase came after the BOS reduced the department budget requests by $986,688. Adding in the debt service—much of which is tied to the new high school—the total town budget comes to $36,618,033, an increase of 3.06 percent. The total debt for the coming fiscal year is $7,879,034, an increase of 5.67 percent over last year.
The BOS approved the budget by a four-to-one vote with Selectman Cindy Cartier voting against. While the budget is now set to move on to the BOF along with the Board of Education (BOE) budget, budget numbers may change once more concrete numbers come down from the state.
The governor just gave his initial budget proposal on Feb. 8. Numbers in the proposal are likely to change, but in the initial run, Guilford did not fare well, between losing significant grant money and possibly having to contribute to teacher pensions (see “Guilford Reacts to the Governor’s Proposed Budget” on page 8). However, First Selectman Joe Mazza said he does not think the governor’s budget proposal will stick.
“It was quite shocking to all of us—it wasn’t very good for towns like Guilford,” he said. “I have spoken to our state representatives…and some, I am not going to say whom, claim this budget is DOA—dead on arrival.”
While the news from the state was not positive, Mazza said he was pleased to share that the town’s Grand List has grown by $11,272,764 or 0.37 percent this year.
“That is a little bit less than last year, but we have to take a couple things into consideration. Last year it grew about three-quarters of a percent mainly because of two things: the Guilford Commons and Tractor Supply,” he said. “This year was good news to me because at best I thought we were going to remain level, so that helps us somewhat on our revenue side of the budget.”
Because the tax rate is set by dividing the budget’s revenue requirement by the Grand List value, an increase in the Grand List can mitigate tax rate increases given a growing budget.
The budget now moves to the BOF on Thursday, Feb. 16 for review of the operating budget and bonding requests. The combined BOE and town budget go to referendum Tuesday, April 18.