Voting by Australian ballot on the proposed merger of the Windsor and West Windsor school districts, the town and school warnings and the election of officers will be Tuesday, March 6, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Windsor Municipal building.
Windsor
With Hartland and Weathersfield hoping for state approval to remain as standalone K-8 districts, the proposed West Windsor and Windsor merger would create a unified union school district and corresponding school board with three members from each town. All four towns would remain in the Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union.
The proposed $8.6 million school budget has an increase of $181,000, or about 2 percent, over this year’s.
“We have no new positions or programs in the budget nor are we cutting anything,” School Board Chairwoman Amy McMullen said. “For the most part, the increase is due to higher wages.”
If approved, the budget would add about 5½ cents to the homestead education tax rate, bringing it to $1.23 per $100 of assessed valuation. Though more than this year, the new homestead rate is about one cent less than that of two years ago.
McMullen said the tax increase is needed to make up for less money, or “yield,” being raised at the state level on a per-pupil basis.
On the town side, the proposed operating budget and appropriations for different agencies and institutions totals $5.14 million, which is 2.7 percent, or $136,700, more than the current year’s.
A large part of the increase — $93,000 — is for employee wages and payment on a paving bond ($32,780).
Though the operating budget is up $173,000 and the amount requested by the agencies that are voted on separately is increasing by $13,000, the town is adding $75,000 from its capital improvement and surplus accounts, and a $50,000 decrease from this year’s, which reduces the overall spending increase.
Other areas that are part of the budget increase include a $40,000 contract for mowing town property, which inmates at the former prison used to do at no charge; $29,700 for workers’ compensation; and a new state tax on ambulance services in the amount of $12,000.
“We are not looking at doing anything much differently,” Town Manager Tom Marsh said. “The town survey tells us that in general, residents are satisfied with the services they are getting.”
Marsh also noted that the budgets of a few departments — including police, fire and highway — are not much different than they were in 2013. The combined school and town tax rate has had an annual average increase of 1.4 percent since 2011.
“Better service without a higher price tag equates to value,” Marsh said in an explanation of the growth of the budget and tax rate. “Tight cost controls have allowed capital investment in roads, sidewalks and equipment at a more aggressive pace than may have been thought possible five years ago.”
For special articles, the total request from 13 organizations is just below $149,000, a roughly $13,000 increase, of which about half is for support of the library.
There also is a new $5,000 request from the Windsor Resource Center.
If all appropriations are approved, the combined homestead and municipal tax rate would increase an estimated 11.6 cents and increase taxes on a property assessed at $200,000 by $232 to $5,528.
In the only contested race on the ballot, incumbent Selectboard member Heather Prebish is being challenged by Eric Saltonstall for a three-year term.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
