About 30 people turned out Monday for a public hearing on the proposed $40.8 million 2012 – 2013 budget.
Of those, about half rose at some point to address the Board of Finance, on topics that varied from the need for a third ambulance to whether the town should pay to maintain fire hydrants in communities like Oxford Greens.
A handful discussed the budget’s impact on the tax rate — a 4.2 increase — and said the numbers proposed by the finance board last week after extensive revision are still too high, and that the tax rate should be flat or decrease.
“My feeling is the budget has become a game of ‘How much money can we grab?’” said Ed Spruck, who said the finance board did not go far enough in reducing the school board’s funding request.
The budget — posted at the end of the story — represents three different expenditures that will be voted on at referendum next month:
*$26,644,247 in school spending.
*$13,440,548 for town operations.
*$734,000 for improvements to several roads.
Under the proposal the mill rate would go from 23.21 to 24.19, an increase of .98 mills. That means property taxes on a house valued at $200,000 would go from about $4,600 annually to about $4,800.
“With this current budget that you’re proposing, on my ballot you’re going to have three ‘no’ votes,” said Roger O’Toole, who said the town shouldn’t be hiring people or buying new vehicles.
School board member Gerard Carbonaro spoke several times in defense of the proposed budget, and said the finance board’s $154,000 reduction, “difficult as it is for the (school) board to swallow,” was “responsible and appropriate.”
“You have lemons, you’re doing your best to make lemonade,” he told finance board members. “It’s not easy.”
Lila Ferrillo, the chair of the finance board, said that while it would be possible to keep taxes flat, that would mean losing services and laying off people in Town Hall. “That’s not realistic.”
First Selectman George Temple said he wants taxes to remain flat or go down next year, “and I believe we’ll be in a position to do it.”
That’s because of “tremendous” responses he said he’s gotten from businesses interested in moving to Oxford recently.
New businesses would mean growth in the town’s tax base.
Temple said last year the grand list grew by $114,000.
“That’s nothing I would be happy with and that’s nothing we would accept as what’s going to be the norm,” he said.
The Board of Finance will meet Tuesday (April 24) to finalize the budget before sending it to a town meeting and referendum, the likely dates of which would be May 7 and May 15, respectively.