Preston residents can weigh in on town, school budgets

April 06, 2014 12:00 am • Last Updated: April 07, 2014 12:27 am

By By CLAIRE BESSETTE Day Staff Writer

Preston - Residents will get a chance to comment on the proposed $3.3 million town and $11.2 million school budget Thursday during a public hearing hosted by the Board of Finance at the Preston Veterans' Memorial School.

The finance board will hold a special meeting immediately following the hearing to decide whether to make any further changes to the proposed budgets before sending them to a May 1 town meeting. Thursday's hearing will start with presentations by the Board of Selectmen on the town budget and Superintendent John Welch on the school budget.

The combined school, town, debt services and capital budget totals $15.5 million and would call for a 24.07 mill tax rate, a 0.37-mill increase over this year's tax rate of 23.7 mills. The Board of Finance will not set a final tax rate until after the budget is approved at a future referendum based on updated revenue figures.

The finance board in recent weeks made minor adjustments to the town budget, including adding $100,000 to a capital nonrecurring account to be prepared for equipment breakdowns and other one-time needs next year.

While the board made no changes to the $11.2 million school budget, that spending plan was the subject of the most controversy during budget discussions. The budget includes $185,000 to add full-day preschool for all 4-year-olds. The program anticipates adding two preschool classes and serving about 40 students. Currently, the school system has one preschool class that is state mandated for special education students with regular education students filling the class on a fee basis.

Finance board members have criticized the plan, saying the town either should start with a half-day preschool program or retain the fee plan for parents interested. On March 31 the finance board decided to reduce the proposed amount to take from the town's healthy surplus fund to offset taxes in order to show a slight tax increase. Members said they wanted to show residents that the 5.4 percent, $569,854 school budget increase is costly.

First Selectman Robert Congdon calculated the tax impact of the budget using the preliminary tax rate of 24.07 mills.

On a house assessed for $140,000, a property owner would pay an additional $52. The owner of a house assessed at $210,000 would pay an additional $78, and the owner of a house assessed at $280,000 would pay an additional $104.