Preston residents will get an in-person chance to review proposed 2021-22 budgets
Preston — The annual budget public hearing May 20 will be the first in-person meeting since the pandemic hit in March 2020, giving voters the chance to gather and comment on the $4 million town and $12.48 million school budgets.
Despite spending increases in both budgets, the proposed tax rate would drop by a quarter mill, after the Board of Finance voted to use $450,000 in town surplus funds to offset any tax increase.
The entire budget process was left to the Board of Finance last spring according to Gov. Ned Lamont’s pandemic executive order. But Lamont is lifting most pandemic restrictions on May 19, and Preston officials are planning to return to the usual process, starting with the public hearing at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 20, at Preston Plains Middle School.
Masks will be required indoors, and Superintendent Roy Seitsinger said the gymnasium can accommodate at least 100 attendees.
Following the public hearing, the Board of Finance will hold a special meeting to finalize its proposed budget and recommend dates for the Board of Selectmen to set for the town meeting and budget referendum. In recent years, the town has needed multiple referendums to approve one or both proposed budgets.
The Board of Finance on Wednesday made only slight changes — a $3,900 reduction in public works consulting fees — to the $4 million town government budget, which has a 4.2% increase over this year's spending plan, before voting 3-2 to approve it. Members Robert Congdon and Andy Depta voted against the town budget.
After the meeting, Congdon, the longtime former first selectman, said he voted against the town budget because, in the past two years, the town has returned a significant amount of unspent dollars to the general fund and he didn’t find the proposed increase justified.
The previous week, the finance board voted to reduce the proposed school budget by $120,000, to a total of $12.48 million, a 2% increase.
But the board also voted unanimously Wednesday to use $450,000 from the undesignated fund to offset any property tax increase. The proposed tax rate would be 26.67 mills, a drop of 0.27 mill from the current 26.94 mills.
The budget does not include the $456,640 in federal funding the town expects to receive through the American Rescue Plan.
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