Boards make cuts; Selectmen set Mill Rate

After Tuesday’s referendum and the request from the Board of Finance (BOF) to reduce the budget by $100,000, both the Board of Education (BOE) and Board of Selectmen (BOS) got to work making their cuts. And once that was done, the Selectmen set the Mill Rate so that tax bills can go out on time. 

Over at the BOE they voted to take $64,000—their share of the $100,000 cut—out of the health insurance line. At the BOS, the $34,000 in cuts came from a few different places:

• $3,000 from the Transfer Station’s trash disposal budget

• $2,000 from the Parks Department’s trash disposal budget

• $1,000 from the Parks Department’s skating rink  budget

• $3,000 from the Parks Department tennis court budget

• $1,000 from the Parks Department structure maintenance budget

• $14,000 from the Building Maintenance budget

• $10,000 from the Community Center budget

According to a document provided by the Town, the Community Center will reduce its Congregate Meals budget. It plans to eliminate senior meals on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. It will now only provide meals on Tuesday and Thursday, when CRT provides the Senior Congregate meals. This will save roughly $8,649. 

The Community Center will also reduce its Events & Activities budget by $1,351 and try to fundraise to replace that amount.  

"We're going to see some pain," said Selectman Tim Cromwell, who also said he sees both sides of the issue. He said his own taxes went up substantially.

Those cuts didn’t appease one commenter, though. During the public comment session at the Selectmen’s meeting on June 3, Derek Dimmock asked the selectmen to rescind their vote to approve the cuts, and to “dig deeper into your budget.” He suggested reducing the police staffing, hours at the library, and the number of foremen working for the town. 

Dimmock also had one specific suggestion to move $75,000 from the solar maintenance budget to the utility fund, saying it would save taxpayers money. He seemed to suggest the utility fund—a budget line item that pays for the Town’s solar leases—is not tax funded, but that’s not quite true. Credits from the solar and geothermal projects were supposed to go into this fund, but the geothermal project has never performed properly. In fact, deficits in the utility fund in years past have been responsible for the dwindling unassigned balance in the General Fund as the Town has had to draw on it to continue paying its obligations. (You can read more about that in this article about the latest audit.)

Cromwell said the ideas from Dimmock and others, were not falling on deaf ears. Speaking of his fellow selectmen he said, "There's some work being done over here," and added that they were making cuts they did not want to have to make.

If the mill rate is already set, what happens now?

The Selectmen voted to set the Mill rate at 25.59, which is what it would be if the next budget referendum passes. But you might be wondering why Stafford will have another referendum if the Mill Rate is already set. Here’s why:

The new fiscal year begins on July 1. As we previously reported, the tax collector needs to submit all of her information by June 16 in order to have tax bills go out on time. The earliest Stafford would be able to have another referendum is June 22, 2026. In a normal year, the Town could just send out bills at its current Mill Rate, but Stafford’s current Mill Rate is 38.59. If people were taxed on their new property values at that rate, there would be rioting in the streets. 

The Town still needs funds to operate. So, while it may have set a Mill Rate in order to collect taxes, it still cannot spend more than it did last year until a new budget is passed. Ironically, because the Selectmen’s proposed budget actually represents a decrease from the current fiscal year, they would be able to spend more while in limbo than they would if the budget had passed. The opposite is true for the schools. 

So, now you might be wondering, what happens if the next budget referendum fails and spending is further reduced. Well, the Town will have to abide by that spending limit but its unlikely that refunds would be issued. Instead, any funds collected above and beyond this year’s budget would be applied to the following year’s budget to reduce tax bills. 

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