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05/10/2016 12:00 AMWith no final word from the state on Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant cuts after the state legislature failed to approve a budget by the May 4 deadline, the Board of Finance (BOF) has put forward a final budget of $79,801,034, a combined 2.58 spending increase, based on the most recent information.
Under the final version of the budget, the town’s operating budget totals $24,314,830, an increase of 1.43 percent. The Board of Education (BOE) budget came in at $55,486,204, an increase of 3.09 percent.
Both the BOE and the town reduced the operating budgets in an effort to prepare for what could be the elimination $1.57 million in ECS funding that the town originally anticipated receiving. While the most recent versions of the state budget show smaller reductions, BOF Chair Joe MacDougald said they are prepared for multiple outcomes.
“The budget we have, we have several mechanisms where we can adjust it depending on the reality of state government, but I think everybody is of the opinion that next year will be just as hard if not harder,” he said. “All I know is the budget we have is flexible enough where we can accommodate different scenarios.”
To achieve this year’s budget number, the BOE reduced its budget by $300,000, the town reduced its operating budget by $262,024, and the BOF will use $750,000 from the fund balance and project a tax collection rate of 98.75 percent, up from last year’s 98.5 percent rate.
“Instead of going up a whole half point, we are going to go up just a quarter point,” he said. “It is not unreasonable because you don’t want to over collect, but you want to allow for security.”
Within the budget, the town had originally planned for a reduction closer to $400,000, but MacDougald said there were some line items they wanted to go back and restore.
“We restored some critical safety programs including the hiring of the dispatcher,” he said.
As the budget stands, the possible mill rate increase comes to 2.83 percent, but the mill rate will not be officially set until after a successful referendum.
“The mill rate doesn’t get decided until the very end of the fiscal year after the budget has been passed so it is possible that the mill rate might come down,” he said.
For now, the town will await further budget news from Hartford as legislators are expected to vote on the budget proposal Thursday, May 12 during special session. MacDougald said in light of the trying budget year, he is pleased with where the process is now.
“This could have gone many ways and the fact that everyone was working together to get to one plan I think is impressive,” he said. “This was a good group, at the right time, doing the right thing.”
The Madison budget referendum will be held Tuesday, May 24.