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04/27/2017 12:00 AMOn April 26, the Town Council approved a budget of $89,536,989 for the 2017-’18 fiscal year. This is a $651,527, or 0.73 percent decrease from current spending. The mill rate is set at 31.55 and remians unchanged from last year, meaning that taxes won’t go up. The vote passed nine to three with one member abstaining.
“In the 2015-’16 budget, we enacted the largest tax decrease in a non-revaluation year since 1989,” said Mayor Joseph Maturo, Jr., via press release, “This marks the second budget in a row since that historic tax cut that we’ve preserved those savings for our residents, an accomplishment that is particularly noteworthy given the number of municipalities considering mill rate hikes this year due to the fiscal challenges facing our state.”
The town has lowered its medical insurance costs due to lower claims in recent months.
“We concluded the renewal of our health insurance administration contract, which resulted in over $500,000 in net savings for the town, approximately $400,000 of which will directly benefit our Board of Education in the form of lower operating costs,” said Maturo.
The largest increases in the town budget went to public safety, with a total increase of $561,976 going to the police and fire departments, as well as the Public Safety Dispatch Center.
The biggest decreases in the budget were the debt service, insurance, and legal services line items. The total reduction of those three items is $1,599,249.
According to the release, the Board of Education will see a $700,000 increase. That’s substantially lower than the a $2,307,133 or 4.87 percent increase the Board of Education had requested for 2017-’18.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Portia Bonner said the board will have to make reductions based on what the town has allocated. She said that the board will again have to reduce personnel and limit programs.
“The board’s priority is to maintain manageable class size, and focus on instruction and learning,” said Bonner. “Reductions will come from areas that do not directly impact or limits the impact on our children.”
Town Council Chairman Fred Parlato said the reason why the Board of Education didn’t get all of what it was asking for was that the town couldn’t afford it, citing concerns about what is happening with the state’s budget.
“They’re going to have to take a hard look at their expenses,” said Parlato.
While the budget passed and the mill rate is set, there is a chance that it could change. Finance Director Paul Rizza said the state has not finalized its budget yet, and the state could potentially cut funds to the town government and education.
If that scenario does happen, Rizza said there’s “a little room” in the budget depending on where the cuts come, and he and the town would try to balance the budget without increasing the mill rate. If the town would need to make cuts, Rizza said he would first look at non-payroll expenses that could be cut.
“I would try to stay away from personnel,” Rizza said.
With the 2017-’18 operating budget passed, the town will now look to pass its capital budget, which pays for longer-term projects via bonding.
“We will be reviewing departmental capital requests to determine what other infrastructure projects we are in a position to tackle over the next year,” said Maturo.