Somers Board of Finance to Hold Public Budget Hearing

Cuts have been made to the budget and now, residents are being asked to come to a public hearing to discuss the proposed budget and let the Board of Finance know their opinions.

The hearing will be held on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the auditorium. 

In these tough economic times, the Somers Board of Finance is asking the and the to make cutbacks and do more with less.

At a recent meeting, the board reduced both budgets by $75,000 for a savings of $150,000.

To achieve the town’s $75,000 reduction, $30,000 was taken from the , $27,000 was taken from the , and $18,000 was taken from the selectmen’s budget.

How the reduction from the library will be made is the decision of the Library Board. It will most likely mean a reduction in hours and services.

As for the transfer station, the Board of Selectmen is working on what it will mean for its operation, but it will most likely also mean a reduction in hours and services.

In addition to the $18,000 that came out of the selectmen’s budget, the selectmen’s budget was further reduced by $16,678 and re-appropriated to the police, tax department, and benefits to address issues that arose after the proposed budget was created.

The proposed budget is $28,104,522, which is $409,962 less than the current budget of $28,515,484.

This reflects a decrease of 1.44 percent, but the Board of Finance is still recommending at .5 mil increase. The mil rate would increase to $21.62, which is a 2.36 percent increase in the rate.

The median assessed value of a house in Somers is $197,600. The proposed budget would mean an increase of $98.80 for the year on this property.

The town government budget of $6,643,822 reflects an increase of 4.31 percent over the current fiscal year.

Debt service expenditures will decrease by $567,487 to $2,201,383 due to the retirement of outstanding debt issues. 

In February, the Board of Education approved a $19,334,317 budget for 2011-2012, essentially a level­ funded budget with an increase of $8,200, or .04 percent.

Due to the request to reduce the budget by $75,000 however, the Board of Education had to cut more. The result is a proposed budget of $19,259,317 with a net reduction of $66,800.

For full figures on the budget, click here.

The annual town meeting will be held on May 10 at 7 p.m. at the town hall and the budget referendum vote will take place on May 24, also at the town hall.