Groton — Groton taxpayers would face an 8.3 percent tax rate hike under the proposed budget for the coming fiscal year, because of a decline in revenues, according to a summary of the budget proposal.

The proposed $125.6 million budget represents a $120,608, or 0.1 percent, decrease in spending. The Board of Education submitted a budget with a zero percent increase.

But the town is suffering revenue losses on multiple fronts.

Groton’s Oct. 1, 2015, grand list, or the amount of taxable property in town, fell $18.3 million from the prior year, or about 0.5 percent.

That translates into a loss of $382,549 in property tax revenue.

The town also anticipates a $1.4 million, or 3.37 percent, drop in revenue from sources other than the property tax or use of the town’s fund balance, according to a budget summary by Town Manager Mark Oefinger.

The budget as proposed would require a mill rate of 22.68, an increase of 1.73 mills, or 8.3 percent, over the current mill rate.

Taxpayers would owe $2,268 in local property taxes for every $100,000 of assessed value, an increase of $173 per $100,000 of assessed value in the current year.

A public hearing on the proposed budget is scheduled for 7 p.m. March 29 in the Groton Senior Center.

Groton also is taking a hit because it used its fund balance to cushion the blow for taxpayers in the past.

The proposed spending plan would maintain a fund balance of 7.75 percent, which would leave $247,434 to help cover expenses in the coming year, compared to more than $5 million to cover expenses in the current year, the summary explained.

Town leaders spoke two years ago during budget deliberations about setting aside $2.7 million in the town’s fund balance to provide tax relief over multiple years to cushion the blow of Pfizer’s decision to demolish its former research headquarters.

The initial plan was to set aside $1.8 million to offset losses in the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years.

But the Town Council opted, before setting the tax rate for the 2015 fiscal year, to set aside less: $900,000 to offset losses in 2017 instead of $1.8 million.

Councilors also spent $900,000 in fund balance to lower the mill rate for the 2015 fiscal year, Oefinger’s budget summary explained.

Oefinger wrote: “As a result of a reduction in revenues, a decrease in the grand list, and a reduction in the amount of fund balance available, AND despite a reduction in proposed expenditures” for the current fiscal year, taxes would rise.

d.straszheim@theday.com