Preston — The Board of Finance has asked school and town officials to review their proposed 2018-19 budgets and consider cutting $100,000 from each of the budgets submitted in March in response to uncertainty in state funding and the continuing need to use town surplus to offset state cuts.

The request made at last week’s Board of Finance meeting calls for revised town and school budgets to be submitted by April 13. The Board of Finance will meet April 24 to discuss the budgets. The Board of Selectmen approved a town government budget of $3.6 million, a 6.28 percent increase, and the Board of Education approved a $12 million budget with a 3.04 percent increase.

First Selectman Robert Congdon told the Board of Finance that the increases listed in the town government budget are misleading, because the 2017-18 budget and tax rate of 24 mills does not include the loss of $500,000 in state aid mid-year. If Preston had sent out supplemental property tax bills — as other towns did to make up the loss in state revenue — the town tax rate already would be 25.26 mills.

Also this year, the Covanta trash incinerator converted from a nontaxable entity paying Preston a host-town agreement payment into a taxable property. The total loss in revenue from the conversion adds 0.78 mills to the tax rate. Property revaluation this year would add another 0.33 mills to a real tax rate of 26.37 mills, Congdon said.

With all of those calculations included, the proposed 2018-19 town government budget would require a tax increase of 2.64 mills if none of the town’s remaining $2 million surplus were used to offset the increase, or 1.75 mills if $375,000 were used from surplus — much lower than the 5-mill increase on paper.

“The Board of Selectmen and the Board of Education thought they presented budgets that met the needs of the town,” Congdon said. “If the Board of Finance says they’re too high, they have a responsibility to say why they’re too high.”

Board of Finance Chairwoman Melissa Lennon said the finance board wanted to be respectful to the selectmen and school board to allow them to review their proposed budgets and suggest the cuts, rather than dictating. Lennon said the finance board is very concerned about the prospect of another major state budget cut that could sap the town's once-strong surplus.

The biggest increase in the proposed town budget is the $160,869 to keep the second resident state trooper approved by residents in a Feb. 6 referendum for the remainder of the current fiscal year. Congdon said he will not recommend cutting the trooper before residents get to comment on it at the budget public hearing.

Congdon said he did ask the town attorney if it would be possible to remove the cost from the selectmen’s proposed budget and include it on a separate line item in the budget referendum.

Congdon also said the addition of $24,035 for two weekend shift ambulance crew members looks like a cost increase, but the town would receive $20,000 in revenues from ambulance fees to cover most of that.

Congdon said he also could consider cutting the $13,400 increase in the Preston Redevelopment Agency budget, bringing it down to this year’s $118,850 total. The increase was proposed to cover the cost of a clerk of the works to oversee the final 12-month cleanup of the former Norwich Hospital property.

PRA Chairman Sean Nugent said if the agency’s budget were cut, it could change the way the clerk of the works position is managed, but not eliminate the position.

Nugent also is chairman of the Board of Education. He said the school board has reviewed and cut Superintendent Roy Seitsinger’s proposed budget. Nugent said the school board finance committee met four times, 2½ hours each meeting, and the full school board discussed the budget at three separate meetings.

“It’s going to be extremely difficult to find additional reductions that don’t directly impact programs and personnel,” Seitsinger said. “The board is going to be challenged to do that. The board did a good amount of work to get to a place that’s efficient and effective.”

c.bessette@theday.com