Southbury to vote on $71.4 million budget
SOUTHBURY — Southbury residents will vote May 5 on a $71.4 million budget, including Southbury’s $49.8 million portion of the Region 15 school budget.
The Finance Committee approved the $21.6 million proposed town budget last week at a joint meeting of the Finance Committee and Southbury Board of Selectmen.
According to minutes from the Region 15 Board of Education meeting on April 7, the board approved its overall budget of $74.8 million for a 2.58 percent increase over the previous
fiscal year. Southbury will be responsible for $49.8 million of the Region 15 budget.
“Certainly, proper management of the town government has helped bring in a good (town) budget,” Southbury First Selectman Jeffrey Manville said. “The key is to not kick the can down the road, so to speak. Meaning, not putting off proper funding of services so that it looks good politically and then catching up to the municipality at a later date.
“This budget does not cut critical services or funding of our obligations, including pension obligations. I am watching other municipalities bring in negative or flat budgets and notice that their pension or other obligations have not been tended to.”
Southbury Finance Director Dan Colton said the town budget satisfies the goal of not having a major affect on the mill rate.
“From my perspective, the first selectman, Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance have really done an incredible job financially for the town,” Colton said. “Their guidance has been instrumental in maintaining another negative (lowered) budget this year without having any impact on town services.
“We started out our budget process with the goal of keeping town services at the level our taxpayers expect as well as not having any major fluctuations with the mill rate. I think we have accomplished that with this budget.”
For the second straight year, the Southbury town budget will be lower than the previous fiscal year. Town expenses would decrease while education spending would slightly increase.