Politics & Government
2011-12 Budget Proposal Includes Curbing The Property Tax For Homeowners
'For the first time in several years, there will be a shift in the relative tax burden from residential to commercial properties,' town manager Richard Branigan told the Town Council this week.
Town manager Richard Branigan presented the 2011-12 town and school budget to the Town Council this week, asking for increased expenditures of close to $2 million for a total of $47,437,512.
The total is a 4.23 percent increase over last year’s expenditures of $45,512,562.
Branigan said the increase comes with expenditures “trimmed to skeletal levels and below.” Minimal town hirings, a salary freeze and reestablishment of library hours and programs are examples of measures that have been taken to trim the budget, he said.
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The goal of this proposed budget is to “reduce and eliminate costs and increase revenues while maintaining municipal services to the greatest extent possible,” he said.
Property taxes represent 73 percent of town revenues and homeowners will enjoy a slight decrease in taxes next year while commercial property owners will pay slightly more, Branigan said.
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“For the first time in several years, there will be a shift in the relative tax burden from residential to commercial properties,” Branigan said.
The largest share of the town budget is devoted to education, which will increase 4.42 percent to $29,536,247.
Superintendent Scott Schoonmaker opened the meeting with a presentation of the school budget, which will include the hiring of three new teachers: a reading teacher at Jerome Harrison Elementary School, and math and engineering teachers at the high school. The math teacher will be added to teach an algebra course. The engineering teacher will lead a Project Lead the Way program that is geared to preparing students for technical careers.
“It’s a great program for kids, because what our country needs is more engineers,” council member Vincent Caprio said.
The education budget includes capital requests for the high school gym roof and long hallway repairs that will cost $227,000 and $375,000, respectively, Schoonmaker said. There is also a 3.7 percent increase in health care costs, along with a slight decrease in utility costs.
Next up for the budgetary process is a public hearing on April 5, to be followed by budget workshops on April 6 and 7. Preliminary adoption of the budget is scheduled for April 19, followed by a budget referendum on May 10 and the final budget enactment on May 17.
