Waterford — The Board of Finance held its eighth and final public hearing Monday night and made final adjustments to the town budget, approving a $99.4 million spending plan for 2022-23 with a 0.08-mill tax rate decrease.

The proposal calls for a $2.4 million, or 2.45%, increase in spending. The Representative Town Meeting will begin reviewing the proposed budget next month and approve it in May.

Finance board member Bill Sheehan calculated the projected tax rate and said it would decrease from the current 27.64 mills to 27.56 mills, a 0.028% decrease. However, the average home value has increased, so property taxes "depend for each individual homeowner," he said. "Some might have a slight tax increase of $20 to $60 or others may have a decrease."

At Monday's meeting, board members heard no public comments and closed the hearing. They then went down the list of departmental budgets and made final approvals of each one, making some changes to capital improvement spending.

The Board of Selectmen approved an $11.2 million capital and debt service budget in February. The finance board approved an $11.3 million capital and debt service budget after realizing the selectmen had taken into account three grants the town had yet to receive. The town will not receive one of them, a state recreational trails grant of $260,000 toward making Civic Triangle Park a town center, finance board Chairman Glenn Patterson said.

Sheehan motioned to reduce the park project by $246,000 in capital spending. He said there would still be enough funds to dredge Duck Pond, moving along the project.

The board also took into account a public library grant, and cut the money allocated to improve a boat dock parking lot to $400,000. The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is expected to help with the cost of that project.

j.vazquez@theday.com