Southbury officials propose budget that increases spending
Southbury officials are proposing a municipal budget that increases spending by 1.34 percent due to an increase in funds for education.
The budget would include spending nearly $71.4 million, about $21.6 million of which would be dedicated to town costs with the rest tied to schools. Town expenditures would decrease year over year by 3.48 percent, while education spending would see an increase.
“The regional school district is almost 70 percent of our proposed budget,” said town finance director Dan Colton said. “Our goal going into this budget was to keep town services at the expected highest level as well as control our mill rate.
“We created a debt service fund and were able to reduce our road budget given the great shape of our roads. When it comes to roads, 82 percent require no maintenance at all. It’s a testament to our road program and public works department.”
Colton said a revaluation wasn’t involved in the reduced municipal budget.
“We will do a revaluation next year,” Colton said. “The bulk of our reduction was due to the cuts in the road budget and refocusing our debt servicing.”
First Selectman Jeffrey Manville said lowering the budget was not a personal goal.
“My feeling is that many politicians make bad decisions just in order to lower a budget for political purposes,” Manville said. “This creates issues with the budget down the road. The term is ‘kicking the can down the road.’
“But I am happy that my administration, working with the fiscal office, was able to accomplish a negative (lowered) budget without impacting services to the Southbury community. My personal focus is the long-term financial stability of the town with the budget. I believe this budget accomplishes that for the town.”
Colton said the current budget proposal is in its final stages. The Board of Finance will hold a joint meeting with the Board of Selectmen on April 9 to finalize the budget.
“I am hoping that this budget is approved going forward and I do not expect much change,” Manville said. “The BOS (Board of Selectmen) made no substantial changes for my proposed budget.”