Winding up their budget work Thursday night, the selectmen voted to send the finance board a $131,517,000 town and school budget for 2014-15.
Without using any of the town’s $12 million fund balance as revenue, the proposed budget could be financed with a 1.84% tax increase, according to Controller Kevin Redmond’s calculations.
The selectman also approved a $4.8 million capital budget, which they’re asking the finance board to pay for by borrowing in the bond market, so it would not affect taxes next year. The bonding would show up as a slight increase in debt service payments in budgets that followed.
The selectmen’s work Thursday night on next year’s 2014-15 operating budget consisted of two parts:
• The selectmen requested a budget of $33,282,000 for town departments, a 2.97% increase;
• And they voted to make a non-binding recommendation in support of the school board’s full requested budget of $85,245,000, a 2.86% increase.
Those, together with the $12,991,000 in debt service the town must pay next year, together would amount to the proposed $132,517,000 budget the finance board will be looking at, as it puts together a 2014-15 budget proposal to send to voters in the eh May budget referendum.
Read more about the proposed spending plan in this week’s Ridgefield Press.