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02/21/2017 12:26 PMThe town government operating budget for 2017-’18, adopted by the Board of Selectmen (BOS) on Feb. 14, would, if approved as is by the Board of Finance and the town, maintain town services and provide employees a 2.5 percent raise.
The proposed budget of $11,944,849, a 2.4 percent change over the current year, would increase town spending by $277,951. The budget reflects a rise in annual debt service payments of $78,357 or three percent, and assumes town insurance costs will rise 16.4 percent of $40,675.
Changed in the new plan is how the town reflects expenses paid for engineering services. For the past five years, the town has contracted with Woodard and Curran to provide town engineering services on a task order basis. This will change next year. The BOS voted to bring part of the town’s engineering support needs in-house by hiring a part-time town engineer on staff. The total proposed budget for this activity is $105,000, with $45,000 allocated toward the town engineer salary and $65,000 for contract engineering support services.
Based on the town’s actual engineering charges over the past few years, the selectmen had said this change should save the town money while still providing the town with the technical support it needs.
The budget the selectmen adopted does not reflect town departments’ capital equipment or purchase needs. Town departments’ capital requests will be discussed by the selectmen over the next month.
The budget also does not include payments that Governor Dannel Malloy has said towns should now pay toward teacher retirement obligations. In his budget, Malloy has assumed each town will pick up 30 percent of their town’s teacher retirement obligations, a charge that towns have never before paid.
For many decades, the state stated it would take on the obligation of supporting the teachers retirement fund by making annual payments into the retirement fund. However, the state has not made payments at a level that would be required by actuaries to meet known obligations, so in a year when the state budget faces major deficits, the towns are being asked to pay more to plug the holes.
Already, all certified teachers and administrators in the state annually contribute seven percent of their pay toward their own retirement. Now it is up to the State Legislature to decide whether to ask the towns to pay more, as Malloy’s budget demands, or find another way to balance the state’s budget.
The town government budget now goes to the Board of Finance, which begins its own budget workshops this month.