Stonington — The Board of Finance began it review of the proposed 2017-18 budget on Wednesday facing large proposed increases in capital improvements and debt payments for school renovation and sewer plant projects tempered by modest increases in the much larger general government and school budgets.

Making the finance board’s effort to prevent a large tax hike even tougher, though, is Gov. Dannel Malloy’s budget plan, which calls for a decrease in state aid to Stonington. Coupled with the governor's plan for communities to contribute to the teacher retirement fund, this would almost eliminate all of the town’s current $2.3 million in state aid. If the plan is adopted by the General Assembly, the town would net less than $300,000 in state aid.

The school board is considering a $37 million budget proposal that calls for a 2.1 percent increase, the lowest in many years. First Selectman Rob Simmons’ proposed $20.5 million general government budget would increase 3 percent.

Debt service, which the town has to pay and cannot cut, is set to increase 27 percent from the current $5 million to $6.3 million, while requests for town and school capital improvement spending would jump from the current $2.9 million to almost $7.7 million. The Board of Finance typically makes significant cuts to the capital budget to prevent a large tax hike.

The finance board will be reviewing the budget requests from individual town departments, the school board and outside agencies over the next few weeks before making cuts and sending a plan to a public hearing. The board could then make changes based on public hearing comments before sending a finalized budget proposal to a referendum vote this spring.

j.wojtas@theday.com