Hanover School District budget
Despite concern over unsustainable tax rate increases — well above inflation and local income growth the Hanover Finance Committee voted unanimously to support the Hanover School District budget proposal for FY27. For Hanover taxpayers, the combined Hanover and Dresden school district tax rate of $9.06 will be up $0.60 or 7.1%. Additionally, the service staff union contract — also supported unanimously — adds 3-cents combined, for an all-articles total increase of $0.63 or 7.4% in school-attributable Hanover taxes.
For the Hanover warrant specifically a $989k tax assessment increase, up 7.3% is proposed (this is +25-cents on the tax rate, or about 40% of the all-in $0.63 above. At $17.0 million, the Hanover District’s budget — and this is the amount that voters will actually vote upon — is only up 2.9% over FY26. Digging deeper, however, near 6% cost growth at the Ray School (up $834k) driven in no small party by a spike in healthcare costs, was partially offset by $356k in one-year comparative savings from lower special education and building maintenance costs. Such savings can’t be relied upon going forward. Further, the increase in healthcare insurance costs are unlikely to reverse absent a determined effort to cut them.
Accordingly, the HFC urges structural changes to reduce costs. Compensation, benefit structure and staffing levels should all be evaluated. The HFC also urges the districts to begin budget deliberations earlier in the fiscal year and to engage in multi-year budgeting; this will permit deeper deliberation regarding ways to continue to deliver the exceptional education Hanover is known for…while containing cost increases.
Please vote March 3rd, 7 am – 7 pm: Hanover voters at RMS; Norwich voters at Tracy Hall. Details of the warrant articles and budget can be found at: www.sau70.org
For those able to attend, a presentation and discussion of the Hanover warrant articles and budget will be held at Hanover High School on Saturday, Feb. 28th at 11:30 am (12:30 pm start for Dresden budget discussion).