Marathon session yields $20.69 million spending plan

May 12, 2012 12:00 am • Last Updated: May 12, 2012 11:35 pm

By By SASHA GOLDSTEIN Day Staff Writer

North Stonington - The town finally has a 2012-13 budget proposal for Monday's public hearing following a marathon Board of Finance session Wednesday that stretched into the early morning hours Thursday.

The finance board eventually approved a $20.69 million proposal, a 15 percent, $2.68 million increase over this year's budget. If approved, the town's tax rate would rise by more than six mills, to 26.64 mills.

At that rate, a resident with a home assessed at $100,000 would pay $2,664 in property taxes.

Despite the appearance of a large tax rate increase, Assessor Darryl DelGrosso said the cost to a taxpayer basically will even out because of this year's revaluation. Properties in town lost an average of 16 percent of their value, DelGrosso said, and the town's grand list - the valuation of all taxable property in town - dropped by $100 million.

DelGrosso said personal property taxes on things like vehicles and boats also likely would increase.

"The mill rate will go up to make up the difference, if they want to have the same amount of money," DelGrosso said.

Town residents will have a chance to comment on the proposal Monday night.

Selectman Mark Donahue said feedback will be important as the towns boards go back and review where changes in the proposal could be made. Wednesday's six-hour finance board meeting, which ended around 1:30 a.m. Thursday, is emblematic of the tough choices already made, he said.

"It's a process," said Donahue, who is in his first year as a selectman. "It just takes awhile to kind of work through the numbers, to look through alternatives."

The school district is proposed to increase by $441,915 - 3.66 percent - over the current budget. Among the uses for that money would be hiring two new teachers.

The biggest increase is in the general government budget, proposed at $6.38 million, about $2.2 million more than this year's total. About $1.6 million of that increase would go toward the cost of replacing new Town Hall Bridge, which was washed out in March 2010.

Construction has begun, and the bridge is scheduled for completion in September. About 75 percent of the bridge's $1.9 million cost will be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Despite the overall increase, the finance board has proposed cutting the pay and hours of nearly every town employee to achieve a savings of $40,777.

Carol Peabody, the town clerk's assistant, would see her hours cut from 21 to 14 per week, which would amount to a nearly 35 percent pay cut. The town bookkeeper and DelGrosso, the town assessor, would each lose six hours of work a week, about a 17 percent pay cut.

Despite the proposal, which would cut his annual salary by about $10,000, DelGrosso said Friday he would wait and see what happens.

"Assessors don't get nervous," he said with a grin.

Under the proposal, First Selectman Nicholas H. Mullane, his secretary, Robin Roohr, Planning and Zoning Officer Juliet Leeming and her assistant Cheryl Konsavitch, would each maintain a 40-hour work week.

If the changes are implemented, Town Hall hours would change, and Fridays would be half days. But each office within Town Hall would schedule its own hours, depending on when employees are scheduled to work.

The town tentatively has scheduled its annual meeting for May 29. Roohr, the selectman's secretary, said she expected an updated budget proposal to go to referendum during the first or second week of June.

s.goldstein@theday.com