Utilities, tech upgrades raise Preston proposed budget 8.5%

— The proposed $4.9 million town government budget for 2023-24 calls for an 8.5% increase, in part due to salary increases, inflation and technology upgrades, First Selectwoman Sandra Allyn-Gauthier said.

The Board of Selectmen finalized the budget at its final workshop March 8 and submitted it to the Board of Finance on Wednesday night. The finance board will hear a budget presentation from the selectmen at its 7:30 p.m. meeting on March 29.

The overall $4,968,604 proposal is an increase of $388,032 over the current budget. Salary and insurance costs are main factors in the increase, along with technology upgrades, phased-in costs of future projects and an expected 20% jump in utility costs, Allyn-Gauthier said.

An extensive job classification and salary study of town government positions, competitive salaries and internal salary steps is underway but was not completed in time to be incorporated into the budget, Allyn-Gauthier said.

Instead, selectmen included $50,000 in the salary line item for possible adjustments once the study is completed. Selectmen budgeted for 4% raises across the board for town employees, the same as the raises approved for this year.

Allyn-Gauthier said selectmen considered inflation, still over 6%, the 8.7% cost of living increase for Social Security recipients, salary increases in other towns and the difficulty in hiring and retaining public staff. She said towns cannot compete with most private sector salaries and benefits.

“We have to focus on employee retention and attraction,” Allyn-Gauthier said. “We have to take

care of our people.”

Town government now has the equivalent of 16.1 full-time positions in a combination of full-time and part-time positions. The proposed budget includes adding a part-time grant writer for $25,000 and an additional full-time firefighter. The additional firefighter would meet mandated minimum staffing for fighting fires and would bring the town’s firefighting staff to four full-time positions. The town now has a full-time fire chief, deputy and one firefighter.

The salaries budget is $2.09 million, including the $50,000 for possible adjustments and salaries for contracted workers. Health insurance costs are locked in with an increase not to exceed 8.4%.

The budget increases road paving by $27,000 and includes a $16,000 increase in solid waste disposal costs. Allyn-Gauthier said town officials are looking into starting a possible food waste composting program to reduce those costs.

Preston does not charge user fees for residential transfer station stickers, but Allyn-Gauthier said enacting sticker fees could be considered to cover rising costs.

The technology budget includes $45,000 to launch a budget tracking program called ClearGov that would allow residents to see each department’s spending through the year, with narratives provided by the department to explain spending. The program could go online in Preston starting July 1, Allyn-Gauthier said. The system also allows for five years of budget histories for the departments.

“People will know what each department did with their money,” Allyn-Gauthier said.