Aid uncertainty complicates budget process

WINSTED — Selectmen are ready to bring the 202122 municipal and school budgets to the public and have scheduled the annual town budget meeting for Monday.

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at Pearson School and will also be shared on Zoom online. Masks and social distancing will be required of those who attend in person.

The municipal budget for 2021-22 is $14.1 million, a $406,000 increase over the current year’s budget.

The Winchester school budget began at $20.6 million, a 2.99 percent increase from the approved budget in 2020-21 of $19.96 million. That figure includes Gilbert School tu

ition, faculty salaries and benefits.

After several discussions with the Board of Education and selectmen, Winchester Superintendent of Schools Melony BradyShanley reduced the school budget increase from $531,000 to $421,000. To close the gap, the selectmen voted to take $121,000 from the town’s fund balance for the school budget, and to increase the town’s share for education to $320,000.

Mayor Candy Perez said Winsted, like many other towns in the state, is still unsure about how much state and federal funding they will receive for the coming year, and that it was important to close the budget gap for the schools to keep the tax rate down.

“We’re throwing ourselves into the future, hoping and praying that things will grow,” she said. “Just to reassure everyone out there ... If we don’t get state money or federal money as we expect, then the town manager and the finance director will have to make freezes to budgets next year. That’s what will happen, for us to balance the budget.”

The budget referendum is set for Saturday, May 29.

To read the budgets, go to www.townofwinchester.org/sites/g/files/vyhlif1461/f/uploads/ tow_fy22_gf_budget_detail_bos_approved_4.19.21.pdf