Drugonis
SEYMOUR – First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis presented her proposed $61.9 million budget for fiscal year 2022 – 2023 on Monday that contains a tax increase of .78 mills.
A single-family house assessed at $105,000 would pay $82.95 more in property taxes next year, if the First Selectwoman’s budget was adopted as is.
Drugonis made her presentation Monday (March 7) to the Seymour Board of Finance at Seymour Town Hall.
The board will now review both her proposal, along with the budget requests from each of the different town departments and the school district.
Voters in Seymour get the final say on the annual budget and cast separate ballots for the town side of the budget, and the Board of Education budget in the voting booth.
Drugonis’ proposal includes $25.3 million on the town side, and $36.5 million for the Board of Education.
Drugonis’ overall proposed budget is $2.2 million, or 4.5 percent, larger than the current $59.2 million budget.
Under her proposal, the current tax rate of 34.71 mills would slightly increase by .78 mills to 35.50.
“It has been a very difficult budget year,” Drugonis said. “The impact of the national economy being felt locally – runaway inflation, volatile energy prices, supply chain disruptions and labor shortages – have all made planning for the coming year difficult to say the least. Additionally, the costs of benefits and essential services continue to increase.”
Drugonis briefly addressed the deficit in the current school budget, which school officials said was inherited from the previous business manager who miscalculated employee benefits to the tune of $839,000.
As of Monday, the school budget deficit was reduced to $512,000, according to statements made at a Seymour Board of Education subcommittee meeting.
The school board is asking the town to fund a $37.8 million education budget, a $2.4 million increase. The First Selectwoman’s budget suggests a roughly $1.1 million increase to the school board’s current, $35.4 million budget.
“This budget required difficult decisions and sacrifices, and represents a compromise that continues to move the town forward while minimizing the impact on the taxpayer,” Drugonis said.
The town side of the budget has increased by $1.5 million.
Drugonis attributed the bulk of the overall budget increase to a spike in utilities, (she said town was told to expect a 20 percent increase in electric and fluctuations in gas, diesel, oil and natural gas); 7 percent inflation increase, an estimated 11.5 percent increase ($440,000 increase) in town employee health benefits and a $330,000 increase in garbage collection.
There are also 2.5 percent contractual raises across the board for town employees included in the proposal. Drugonis said she did not take a raise in her pay next year.
Other budget highlights include $4.5 million for the police department, which includes the addition of a second deputy police chief; $1.8 million for public works; $1.5 million for waste collection; $435,097 for the fire department and $373,932 for the town library.
Drugonis said she is hoping to find additional healthcare savings and savings in some other areas and bring a lower proposed bottom line back to the finance board.
“Overall I feel this is a fair budget,” Drugonis said. “I live in town and do not want to see my taxes increase anymore than the next person. Just as everyone is seeing increases in fuel, electricity and healthcare, the town is feeling it as well. The focus for the next year will be reducing expenses, and building our grand list. We will continue to work together and tighten our belts and we will get through this together.”
CORRECTION: The original version of this story said $583,000 was taken from the school budget as part of a shared service agreement.
The town said the money “is not just shared services salaries. The town took $583,000.00 out of the School budget; $400,000.00 is for the Solar building improvements cost that both the previous superintendent and Business Manager agreed to pay and half of the cost for the shared Services for two employees Facilities Director and the IT Director.”
