Hartford
The Hartford Selectboard approved a tax-neutral, $15.3 million municipal budget for fiscal year 2018 on a 6-1 vote Wednesday, with Selectman Dennis Brown casting the sole opposing vote.
The School Board approved a $37.4 million budget for the 2017-18 school year, along with a parking lot bond, on the same day.
The municipal price tag of $15.3 million seems significantly lower than the current year’s $16.4 million, but the apparent decrease is due to a change in accounting procedures that Town Manager Leo Pullar said had artificially inflated the previous budgets by counting payments between municipal departments as revenues.
Minutes before voting against the budget, Brown said he felt the budget should include more funding for items like the town’s rainy day fund, which currently stands at about $500,000, rather than the $1.5 million recommended by auditors.
“If we do a level-funded budget, we’re going backwards, I feel,” Brown said, according to CATV video of the meeting. “The majority of citizens, I feel, are comfortable with a 2 to 3 percent increase. Since I’ve been on this board I’ve felt that we’ve been playing catchup with things that have been let go.”
Before the vote, Selectboard members Alan Johnson and Simon Dennis attempted to add a 1 percent tax increase that would have put about $150,000 into paving and the rainy day fund, formally known as “undesignated fund balance,” but when that was defeated, they ultimately voted to approve the budget, along with Sandy Mariotti, Mike Morris, Chairman Dick Grassi and Vice Chairwoman Rebecca White.
Grassi said Friday that he hopes that the undesignated fund balance can be increased at the end of the fiscal year, with money that has been budgeted for various purposes but might not be expended, as is the case when a staff position goes unfilled.
“That’s how confident we are in our budget,” Grassi said.
The warning will also include a $1.9 million bond to bolster the infrastructure of downtown White River Junction by building or repairing sidewalks, water, stormwater, and sewer systems, as well as repairing a sagging retaining wall on South Main Street.
Because the bond payments will be funded entirely by tax revenues captured in the Tax Increment Financing district, it is a tax-neutral proposition.
Grassi credited Pullar with achieving the budget, in part by rethinking the town’s approach to replacing big-sticker capital items, like plow trucks.
“We had a procedure that, when we bought a truck, eight years from that date, we needed to replace it,” Grassi said.
Instead, Grassi said, equipment purchases will be made on a case-by-case basis, as needed.
Pullar drafted the budget under the guidance of a Selectboard-generated document that targeted a tax increase of between zero and 3 percent, and which included no new staff positions.
The budget assumes a half-percent increase in the Grand List, a figure that Grassi said is a conservative estimate based on increased development activity.
The town’s residential tax rate is just under 95 cents per $100 of assessed property value, or $2,366 on a home valued at $250,000.
Also on Wednesday, the Hartford School Board approved a $37.4 million budget on a 4-1 vote. Only School Board Member Paula Nulty opposed the proposal.
Superintendent Tom DeBalsi said the budget includes no staff cuts, and estimates the outcome of teacher and support staff contract negotiations, which are ongoing.
“There was pressure to maintain everything we had, and not have cuts again,” he said Friday. “I think we achieved that.”
The district’s general fund, which comes from tax revenues and excludes fee-supported entities like the Hartford Area Career and Technical Center, is projected to increase from $27.76 million to $28.76 million, an increase of 3.6 percent in spending.
However, once state funding formulas are applied, the actual impact on the school’s portion of the property tax rate, currently $1.52 per $100, would be an increase of 2.8 percent.
That means that, for a $250,000 home, education taxes would increase by $107, to $3,905.
Income-sensitive households, defined as making less than $97,000, could see their rate decrease from 3.05 percent of their income to 2.66 percent. So, a household with a combined income of $50,000 would see a decrease of $195, to $1,330.
Finance Director James Vezina stressed on Friday that the actual impact on taxpayers has yet to be determined, in part because state funding formulas are still in a state of flux. In February 2016, late action by the Vermont Legislature resulted in a lessening of projected school tax increases.
The School District tax impact estimate was calculated based on zero percent growth in the Grand List. If the Grand List increases, as is projected by the Selectboard, the amount raised by both the Town and the School District will remain constant, and the tax rate will go down.
The School Board also voted 4-0-1, with Peter Merrill abstaining, to send a $1.46 million bond to voters for the repair of the parking lot surrounding the complex including Hartford High School, Hartford Memorial Middle School, and the Career Center.
The high school parking lot, which is riddled with potholes and has shown increased signs of deterioration this winter, has been a source of criticism for years.
“The parking lots are at a place where we have to do something,” DeBalsi said.
One thing that will not be on the Town Meeting warning is a proposal to renovate the 104-year-old Wilder School, which houses the Hartford Regional Alternative Program and which is rife with maintenance deficiencies that, in some cases, cause health and safety issues for students and staff.
DeBalsi recommended that the School Board send a $5 million renovation bond to voters; on Wednesday, the School Board narrowly voted, 3-2, against sending the proposal to voters, with Kevin Christie and Merrill voting in favor, while Nancy Russell, Nulty, and Chairwoman Lori Dickerson voted against.
Polls will be open for Australian ballot voting during Town Meeting Day on Tuesday, March 7.
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.
Correction
Hartford School Board member Paula Nulty voted against the $37.4 million budget proposed for the 2017-18 school year. An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect tally for the 4-1 vote.