Kellogg unveils $96.1 million 2022-23 budget for Monroe
MONROE — First Selectman Kenneth Kellogg has proposed a 2022-23 budget that includes a spending increase from $93 million to $96.1 million, a 4.21 percent bump.
About $64.4 million of that total would be allocated to the Board of Education, he told the Town Council on Feb. 14. The rest will go to the various town departments. Kellogg offset some of the spending increase by reducing the appropriations into various reserve and contingency funds by about $743,000 from $1.7 million to about $984,000.
“In preparing this budget, I remained committed to controlling taxes while improving roads and infrastructure, delivering cost-effective services to our community, providing excellence in education, and maintaining the strong financial health of the town that was affirmed by Standard & Poor’s recent upgrade of Monroe’s bond rating to AAA,” Kellogg said in a written statement.
Funding the budget proposal will require a mill rate increase from 36.36 to 37.03, about 1.84 percent. This would cost someone with a home assessed at $300,000 an extra $201 in property taxes.
The town benefited from grand list growth of about $73 million, largely due to a $47.8 million increase in motor vehicle values driven by the jump in used car values, Kellogg said. Residential and commercial real estate values also increased about $23 million.
“While both residential and commercial property growth were robust, we have seen a dramatic increase in the valuation of motor vehicles, consistent across the state and driven by a high demand for used vehicles,” Kellogg wrote. “While it is difficult to predict when that market will stabilize, our grand list must incorporate current market value.”
Monroe is also utilizing American Rescue Plan Revenue Replacement Funds to balance the budget.
The increase is in response to increased cost of supplies and services, a slow down in supply chain, labor shortages, increased fuel costs and contractual obligations, Kellogg said in his presentation.
Some of the larger expenses include $1.3 million in capital spending, primarily in smaller projects like repaining the senior center, replacing some police vehicles and paying off the HVAC and lighting improvements at town hall.
The budget also allocates $2 million for roads, of which $1 million will come through bond sales.
Kellogg proposed the addition of an inspector/sanitarian in the Health Department and the elimination of an inlands and wetlands coordinator, an engineering technician and a per-diem inspector. Kellogg is also asking for an increase to full-time for his office and communications assistant.
Town Council member Jason Maur said the spending, at least on the town side, was about normal compared to previous years. He said he would like to see more investment into roads and infrastructure this year if it works within the budget, as a means to save on spending down the line.
“If our public works department can handle it, I’d be curious to our ability to do both and to pay and maintain roads at a faster pace,” Maur said. “Because if we can get to a better standing general road index, it will cost us less in the long run to then maintain it. And the costs of paving, the cost of asphalt is only going up each and every year, we’ve never seen it decrease.”
The Town Council will review budgets for the town departments during workshops and then submit changes to the Board of Finance by March 15. The board will then review both the town and school budgets by April 20. From there, it will go to a town referendum on May 3.