Preston — The Board of Finance will present the proposed 2018-19 town government and school budgets unchanged to residents at a May 17 public hearing and also will explain how the recent property revaluation will make it seem that taxes could go up higher than they actually are.

The finance board met Wednesday to discuss the town and school budgets, the continued uncertainties about state funding and the effect of the revaluation on property values. Chairwoman Melissa Lennon said Wednesday that the board decided to make no changes to the proposed budgets before sending them to residents for review and comment.

The public hearing will be held at 7:30 p.m. May 17 at Preston Veterans Memorial School. The budget town meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 31, also at the school. The budget referendum will be held Tuesday, June 12.

The finance board in March had asked both the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Education to consider cutting $100,000 from their proposed budgets, but both boards voted to stick with their original proposals.

“The Board of Finance discussed options,” Lennon said. “We could cut both budgets with a goal of making the final mill rate more palatable to residents, or we could support the decision of the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Ed and present their budgets in the public hearing as presented.”

Lennon said it will be up to town and school officials to explain to residents the cost increases in their budgets and the new services they hope to fund next year.

The Board of Finance will remind residents that if the budgets are improved intact, the new proposed tax rate could look like a nearly 5-mill increase, but the real increase would be half that. The 2017 grand list revaluation dropped townwide property values by about 4 percent, automatically adding 2.4 mills just to raise the same amount of tax revenue.

The Board of Education has proposed a $12 million budget for 2018-19, a $355,915, or 3.04 percent, spending increase over this year’s budget. The budget includes $72,218 for a new full-time school social worker $65,320 for an additional elementary school classroom teacher and $45,000 for 1.5 paraeducator positions. The paraeducators were hired midway through this school year using savings in the special education budget.

“I’m looking forward to presenting our data and our information around our emerging priorities in our budget at the public hearing,” Superintendent Roy Seitsinger said.

The Board of Selectmen’s proposed $3.6 million budget calls for a $213,577, or 6.28 percent, increase but nearly all of that, $198,304, came in three areas. Selectmen included two resident state troopers after residents overwhelmingly approved hiring a second resident trooper in February for the remainder of this fiscal year. The second trooper increased state trooper costs by $160,869 next year. The budget also includes $24,000 to hire two per diem ambulance crew members but the town would receive $20,000 in ambulance fee revenue for that cost.

The Preston Redevelopment Agency asked for a $13,400 increase in its budget in part to fund hiring a clerk of the works to oversee the final yearlong cleanup of the former Norwich Hospital property.

c.bessette@theday.com