Stonington Board Of Finance Sends Proposed Budget To Public Comment

A public hearing is the next stop for Stonington’s proposed $56,983,696 2012-2013 budget.

The Stonington Board of Finance with board member Sandy Grimes abstaining decided to send the proposed budge to public comment after their second budget deliberation meeting Wednesday night.

Currently, the proposed budget has a 16.1 mill rate or a 0.47 mills increase from the 2011-2012 budget. A homeowner with a house appraised at $200,000 would pay an additional $94 in taxes.

Below is the proposed budget breakdown:

• General Government: $18,314,315
• Stonington Public Schools: $33,056,600
• Debt Services: $4,694,175
• Capital Improvement: $918, 606

“In the past three years the has been remarkable,” Board of Finance Chairman Glenn Frishman said.

Still some board members such as Grimes said they would like the town to get a 0.4 mill increase and that he worried about people moving out of the area during a recession.

To reach the proposed budget which the Board of Finance said they would feel comfortable sending to the voters even though the mill increase is substantially more than last year the board made cuts to general government, education and capital improvement while taking $500,00 from the Town’s fund balance account. The board cut $25,000 from First Selectman Edward Haberek Jr.’s proposed general government budget, $156,215 from the Board of Education’s proposed budget and $440,497 from Haberek’s proposed Capital Improvement budget.

The three ambulance saw cuts to their proposed budget, which made up the $25,000 cut from general government and the and the saw cuts made to their departments under capital improvement.

“You don’t need to nickel and dime my budget, it’s under what it was last year,” said Haberek as the Board of Finance looked at what items to cut during the meeting.

The Stonington Board of Education will have to decide where to cut the $156,00 from their budget.

The public hearing on the budget will take place on April 18 at 7 p.m. at the .