Colin Moll
This year’s FY 26/27 budget has been set by the Board of Finance and will be presented at a Town Meeting on Wednesday, May 6 for approval. The overall increase will be 2.96%, a 0.69 increase to the mill rate.
The General Government portion, $19,509,306, 28% of the overall budget, will see an increase of 3.83% increase, $720,122.
Services within the General Government portion include:
• First Responder: Police, Fire, Ambulance, Emergency Management
• Department of Public Works
• Town Hall services: Assessor, Tax Collector, Town Clerk, Finance, Election, Planning and Zoning, Fire Marshal, Building Inspector, Conservation, Economic Development, Human Resources, and First Selectman Office
• Community Services: Senior Center, Parks and Recreation, Mini Bus, Youth Services
• Library
• Health and Social Services: contribution to Suffield Community Aid, North Central Health
The increases and changes to the budget are as follows:
- Over 50%, just over $380,000, of the increase is due to wage and benefit increases, most of which are contractually obligated. Last year’s budget was set with a contingency amount at 2.5% due to the timing of contracts still being negotiated after the budget was set. This year’s budget reflects the difference of the agreed upon amount, plus this year’s increase. The budgets impacted due to those negotiations were the Police, Town Hall, Dispatch, and Library.
- Public Utilities had an increase of $94,702. Those line items include Trash collection, Electricity, and Fire Hydrant costs.
- State Aid Road (paving) shows an increase of $94,404 in the budget, however, it is offset in the revenue side.
- $30,000 in new software costs for the new radio system
- just under $30,000 in landfill costs due to State mandated permitting and engineering fees
- increased election costs, $21,000, due to State mandated requirements
The above items reflect a $650,106, 91% of the budgeted increase. The remaining requested increase of $70,016 are operating increases: repair and maintenance line items for buildings and vehicles, subscription costs for required software, programming costs, and higher department energy/utility costs.
Department requests that have added to the budget include:
- increase to the Associate Library salary to better reflect a management salary
- addition of 1 P/T Firefighter. Last year we added 2 P/T Firefighters. Ultimately, the goal was to have 2 Firefighters on duty for every shift. Adding this one will achieve that goal.
Major Department increases/changes are as follows:
• Police: +$231,271 mostly due to contractual wage increases
• Public Works: +$83,029 increased landfill testing and fees as well as operating costs
• Fire: -$2,960 due to new employees starting at starting wage steps
• Community Services: +$63,853 mostly wage increases
• Library: +$63,143 mostly due to wage increases
• IT: +$27,672 shared services with the Board of Education
• Finance: +$34,062 wage increases
• Employee Benefits: -$94,638 due to collectively bargained health insurance changes that removed HSA funding, introduction of tiered structured employee cost share, and pharmacy cost saving programs.
This year’s budget increase is mostly driven by wages and inflationary operational costs. Beyond that, the Town has not requested or added any additional employees or programs that would significantly add to the budget. The Town, “General Government,” part of the budget only reflects about one-third of your tax bill. Almost two-thirds is reflected through the Board of Education expenses and about 10% is spent through Capital Expenditures which include major repairs or maintenance to our buildings, infrastructure costs, vehicle costs, and department equipment needs between the Town and Board of Education.
Thanks to all our Department Heads for their efforts in developing a thoughtful budget that provides the Town with great services and programs while maintaining a fiscally responsible approach that allows for one of the lowest mill rates in Hartford County.