Council to Vote on Proposed $28.3 Million Town Budget

The Town Council will review and possibly vote on increasing the town budget by 3 percent for the next fiscal year at its Thursday meeting, amounting to .

That was the amount the council arrived at during its budget workshop last month.

When added to the Board of Education $50.8 million request in gross, that makes a $79.4 million combined budget for 2012-13, but the council does not vote on the school board budget.

After Town Manager Brandon Robertson came to them with a $28,586,904 recommendation, the council deliberated and asked for further reductions. The town side of the budget, as it stood after the budget workshop, includes the town’s operating budget ($20,120,878), sewer fund ($1,752,526), capital improvement program ($1,892,783) and debt services ($4,546,338).

Robertson will present the adjustments he's made to the proposal at the meeting.

The adjusted proposal discussed Feb. 11 does not include staff cuts, Town Council Chairman Mark Zacchio previously said, but adds a full-time teen librarian to staff for a cost of about $48,000.

"There's been a need there for five years, we just haven't been able to fund it," Zacchio previously said.

The council voted to raise Robertson’s annual salary by 2.5 percent, which would bring it to $133,841, Zacchio said, to increase his paid vacation days by one week to four weeks total and to raise his auto stipend by $1,000 to a $6,000.

The largest town capital projects listed on the proposal were $302,797 in road repairs, $250,000 to replace a fire engine, $190,000 for replacing four Highway Division vehicles and $120,000 to replace two Buildings and Grounds dump trucks with plows.

A Cider Brook Road and Avonside sewer project listed under capital improvement for next year may cost around $275,000, but Bartha said that would be funded entirely by special revenue at no added cost to the town.

The town already budgets gross, but this is the ’s first year doing so instead of presenting a net budget, Assistant Town Manager Steve Bartha said. The school board set a budget early this year, requesting .

For that reason, Bartha said there might appear to be a “blip” in anticipated school spending increases as school revenue sources are factored in alongside projected expenditures. Instead of an apparent 7.9 percent school spending increase, the actual increase would be about 2.91 percent if approved, he said.

The school board’s largest capital request includes $300,000 for new interactive smart boards and LCD projectors.

The Town Council meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Selectmen's Conference Room in Town Hall, Building One. It is open to the public.

The deadline for the council to recommend a town budget is April 1, according to the town website, where the proposed budget is posted.

The Board of Finance public hearing for the budget is 7 p.m. on April 9 at the Avon Senior Center, followed by the budget workshop on April 11 at the same time and place. The annual town budget meeting is scheduled for May 7 at 7:30 p.m. at the senior center and the budget referendum will be held there on May 16 at 6 a.m.

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