Town Budget Lays Out $100.5M Spending Plan

The first item Town Meeting members will vote on Monday is a new town budget.

Town Manager Wayne Marquis submitted a request for $100.5 million to the Board of Selectmen in March and that spending plan has been recommended for approval both by the selectmen and the Finance Committee.

The new spending plan is a 2 percent increase over last year's budget of $98.4 million, driven mainly by rising energy, retirement and health insurance costs, along with debt service payments on the high school renovation project and operating costs associated with opening remaining portions of the school, such as utilities.

Employee health insurance premium costs are projected to increase by 5.5 percent alone, but town officials are hopeful of seeing some reduction in that expense by making some program changes as of July 1. Pension costs have also increased by more than $400,000 due to a revised payment schedule.

Here's a look at the departmental breakdown as proposed for Fiscal 2014 compared with the current fiscal year:

On the revenue side, town officials say there will be some uptick in local receipts from licenses, permits and excise taxes and additional tax revenue from new construction, but also likely a 20 percent drop in hotel and motel taxes.

The tax levy will increase by approximately 3.5 percent under the spending plan, which includes $600,000 in new tax revenue, the light plant and water and sewer operations will remain fully self-supporting and state aid may increases somewhat on general education funding, but decrease on special education reimbursements.

There may also be additional state aid, depending on the final outcome of income and sales tax proposals being debated on Beacon Hill.