Preston ― The Board of Finance cut 1% from both the 2024-25 proposed town government and school budgets Thursday following a public hearing during which the majority of speakers supported keeping both budgets unchanged.

During the special meeting after the hearing, finance board members said they wanted to trim the projected 0.83-mill tax increase needed to cover the full budget requests. The 1% cuts would bring the projected tax increase to 0.5 mills, town and school Finance Director Cindy Varricchio said.

Board member Max Zachem proposed the 1% cut to each budget. The school board cut, approved 4-2, cut $151,083, bringing the new total to $15,031,526, a 4.5% increase over the current budget.

The 1% cut to the town government budget was approved unanimously, bringing the budget to $5,414 306. Both budgets will be presented to voters at a town meeting May 9 at 7 p.m. at Preston Veterans’ Memorial School.

The town government budget cut totaled $54,438, but Vacchio said revenue projections should be increased by $25,000, reducing the expense cut to $29,437. First Selectwoman Sandra Allyn-Gauthier recommended the cut be taken from the road resurfacing budget, which could be replaced with the state grant money the town receives for local capital improvements.

“It’s not costing the taxpayers, and we can still get the work done,” she said.

During the public hearing, one of the few complaints voiced by a resident was on the town’s deteriorating road conditions. Jack Smallwood complained that potholes are prevalent on town roads and cannot be repaired by the town’s practice of chip-sealing roads with stones.

“You drive down any of our roads, you hit a pothole, and it’s going to cost you over $147 in car bills just to fix your car,” he said, referring to the estimated tax increase to the average homeowners the requested budgets would have needed.

Smallwood said the town needs to budget now for a long-term plan to repave all roads in town, proposing repaving at least one mile of roadway each year until all roads are completed and then maintaining them.

Other speakers urged the finance board to keep both budgets intact, saying they supported the efforts of town and school officials to present responsible proposed budgets.

Resident Andy Depta and Andrew Bilodeau criticized the town’s new ClearGov online budget platform, saying the documents presented on the town website, preston-ct.org, were not detailed enough to allow residents to thoroughly explore town and school spending.

c.bessette@theday.com