A $20.8 million budget for the upcoming 2024-’25 fiscal year, along with an expected 1.5 increase in the mil rate, will head to voter approval on Monday, May 20 after being approved by the Board of Finance (BOF).

Total expenditures of $20,823,163 mark a 2.23% increase from the current year’s budget of $20,369,835. The $453,327 increase, along with the mil rate increase from 29.88 mills to 31.38 mills, is mainly influenced by an increase in Deep River’s share of the Region 4 School District budget, which tri-town electors approved on May 7.

In a weekly address dated May 3, First Selectman Carol Doak-Jones acknowledged that it was “a tough year” crafting the proposed budget, and “difficult decisions had to be made in order to keep the impact to our residents to a minimum” relative to the school district budget.

“It pains us to have to raise taxes, but costs have gone up in every department, plus the impact of the Region 4 school budget is hitting us hard,” Doak-Jones said in her weekly address. “The total education expenditures for Deep River Pre-K-12, is a 4.13% increase over last year which equals $579,692.00. This is essentially a 1 mil increase. However, the budget for DRES expenditures is relatively flat at 0.02%.”

Doak-Jones said that the BOF asked all departments to find cuts within their budgets. Even with “all of the cuts that each department was asked to make, we are proposing a 1.5 mill tax increase.” If town electors reject the proposed budget, she said further cuts would have to be found in the budget, likely in the Deep River Board of Education budget and budgets for other town services, including the highway department.

The proposed spending package includes a cut of $123,446 for the highway department, which reflects the BOF’s decision not to allocate larger sums to the department after a $150k paving project for the town did not come to fruition, said Doak-Jones. She said the original funds for the project could be reappropriated at a future town meeting, but that it was not feasible to include it back in the new budget.

The town’s police force is facing an $81,492 cut. Doak-Jones said the BOF recognized that some of the department’s money had been underspent in previous budgets and that an expected surplus could be reallocated to cover other parts of the budget.

“It’s not going to take any police officers off Deep River streets; our force will stay the same,” said Doak-Jones.

While several cuts were included, a $117,537 increase can be found in the category of employee benefits. That line item now totals $855,002, which includes an increase of $405,653 for medical insurance and $304,636 to cover the town’s pension plan.

“The pension plan is something that needs to be funded. That is required to be funded by the state. It has been underfunded and we not are not where we need to be,” Doak-Jones said.

According to Doak-Jones, the town’s pension account is only 30% funded, and it was lowered after some long-term employees opted for a lump sum payout in previous years. The BOF recognized the crucial nature of funding the account for the future.

“We have a couple of long-term employees that, if they decided to retire next year and need a lump sum, then the town would have to come up with that money somewhere,” Doak-Jones explained. “People are owed that money. They’ve worked, it was promised to them, we can’t short that.”

The increase in medical insurance is to cover two new full-time employees at Town Hall, said Doak-Jones.

In the category of elections, there is an increase of $19,952, bringing its budget up to $49,000. This is to account for required early voting procedures from the state, such as more pay and training for registrars and covering new ballots and tabulator machines.

Despite a tough budget to craft, “the Selectman, the Board of Finance has worked very hard on this budget,” said Doak-Jones, who is encouraging town residents to come out and vote for the budget on May 20.

“Please come out and vote. Come to the town meeting on the 20th,” she said. “If they have any questions, they can certainly come into Town Hall and speak to me before the meeting.”

The budget can be viewed on the Board of Finance’s webpage at www.deepriverct.us/board-finance.