Groton ― The town manager will present next week a proposed budget of $158,145,954 for 2025 ― an increase of $9,280,814 or 6.2% over the current budget.

The public hearing will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Thrive 55+ Active Living Center and by Zoom. The superintendent of schools will also present the education portion of the budget.

The overall proposed budget includes an increase of $1,490,140 or 3.5% for town operations; an increase of $6,447,857 or 7.9% for education; a $208,566 or 1.4% increase for capital/debt service; a $54,990 or 2.2% increase for outside agencies; a $1,038,761 or 15% increase for subdivisions; and no increase for contingency, according to the proposal.

If the proposed budget is approved, the tax rate would increase by 1.94 mills to 24.07 mills.

Town Manager John Burt said in a phone interview that the factors driving the budget include wage increases, inflation hitting the Public Works Department, and education costs. The subdivision budget is increasing in part because of the town’s new policy to distribute more of the PILOT, or payment in lieu of taxes, funding it receives from the state to local fire districts.

He said the town also is looking at adding some new positions. The budget proposal calls for an accreditation manager for the police department to manage the national and state processes.

The proposal also calls for a groundskeeper for the Parks and Recreation Department, which has been understaffed, and a part-time library position to help with the circulation department and programming activities, Burt said.

Burt said that the town’s sustainability and resilience manager brought in about $700,000 in grants over the past year that will make the town more resilient in the face of climate change. There is an additional position of a sustainability and resilience specialist proposed to take on some of the work of running the grants so the manager can continue to seek new ones. Burt said the town will be allocating more of its Capital Improvement Project spending every year toward resilience projects.

His proposal says the town “has been collecting higher than expected revenues in recent years,” so the proposal calls for using $4 million of the town’s fund balance toward expenditures.

The Board of Education last month approved a $87.9 million budget for 2024-25, or a 7.9% increase, but said it would continue to work on finding savings. Superintendent Susan Austin called it a “perfect storm,” as the district has increased costs for health insurance, transportation and wages, and will see the end of federal coronavirus relief funds.

Burt said the town manager’s budget proposal is the first draft of the budget. He said he has control over about one third of it, as he is required to include the education and subdivision budgets, as they are. He said he would like to see the budget proposal decrease over the process, and he is sure it will.

Wednesday’s public hearing will start the next phase of the budget process that includes a series of department budget review sessions held by the Town Council over the next few weeks.

By charter, the Town Council has until April 28 to approve the budget and then send it to the Representative Town Meeting.

k.drelich@theday.com