Branford Budget Process At the Midway Point

By Jack Kramer, Correspondent

BRANFORD, CT – If the budget process was over for 2017-2018 in town, residents would be facing a 5.51 percent increase in their taxes.

The good news is that the process if not over.

The Board of Finance met to discuss the town’s budget proposal on Monday night. Much of that discussion centered around multi-million dollar cuts the town is facing from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed two-year, $41 billion budget.

Malloy’s proposed two-year, $41 billion budget would eliminate about $2.5 million in education and special education funding that the town currently receives from the state – and – that Branford would be responsible for picking up one-third the cost of teacher retirement costs for Branford teachers, another $2.7 million. To sign up for Branford breaking news alerts and more, click here.

Originally, Branford budget requests for all departments came in at slightly above $112 million. On Monday night, the finance board cut those budget requests – a bit – to just under $112 million – pretty much evenly split between education spending and rest of town spending.

As the budget now stands, if approved, the mill rate would jump from its current 27.41 to 28.92 – hence the 5.51 percent hike.

But First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove, at the finance board meeting, said the town was still at “the mid-way point in the budget process.”

“We have an obligation to try and mitigate the impact that is being handed down to us from this structural change by the state,” Cosgrove said. “This is far from the end of the process. We will make logical, rational decisions.”