Somers Residents Get What They Want

On Tuesday night, Somers residents filed into the auditorium to let the Board of Finance know where they stood on the direction the budget was taking.

What they let them know was that they weren’t pleased.

Many came out in support of the and in support of raising the mil rate to allow programs and services to be restored, and to get ahead of what could be an even tougher budget season next year.

While a slight increase in the mil rate - a .5 increase - was already planned, the residents called for more – and they got it.

At the Board of Finance meeting after the public hearing, the board decided to raise the mil rate one full mil. With the increase to 1 mil, the new mil rate will be 22.12.

The median assessed value of a house in Somers is $197,600 (fair market value of $282,286). At the 22.12 rate, this will mean $4,371 in taxes which is an increase of $198 over the 21.12 rate of $4,173.

On a home assessed at $200,000 – fair market value of $285,714 – the taxes raised from $4,224 to $4,424.

This increased mil rate allows the $75,000 the board had taken from both the town and the school budget to be restored, and also to have less taken out of the reserve fund.

With the cut budget, $505,581 was to be taken from the reserve funds. Now, $247,034 will be used.

The proposed budget now totals $28,254,522, which is down slightly from the current budget of $28,514,484.

“I wanted to voice my support for a 1 mil increase in order to fully support the schools, the library, and to reduce the use of the other funds,” resident Andrea Reid said.

Resident Renata Bowers told the various board members and the audience how much she loves Somers and how she would handle this financial situation if it was going on in her household.

“I think we would do something that hurts in order to ensure that our kids were safe, that our homes were safe, to the best of our ability,” she said. “It’s not a personal attack, but it’s a plea from people who live here that we as citizens can do something now and not wait until it’s a tsunami. I don’t want to wait until it’s a tsunami and then hike it to 3 mil. I don’t want to do that. If we do a 1 mil now – and I know we don’t want to, I don’t want to, no one wants to – but if we do a mil this year, that hedges us a little bit for next year. If we wait until things get really, really bad, and then do a mil, or a two, or a three, then we’re absolutely socked.”

She also told everyone that there are payment plans so that no one will be put out on the streets with the mil increase – as some were worried about.

“We’re not putting anybody on the streets, we’re a community,” she said. “We can make things work for everybody.”

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

How the reduction from the library would be handled was the decision of the Library Board. The result was that the library was to close at 2 p.m. two days during the week and that the library would buy less books, DVDs, and other materials.

“We spend quite a bit of money on the school system for our children, as well we should, but the library is the one institution for lifelong learning,” resident Gene Grayson said. “It has programs for toddlers all the way through the older ages. Here in town before the cuts, our library budget was 1.49 percent of our total budget. After the $30,000 cut, it’s 1.4 percent. So I would argue that the budget itself is low. That was already off a 0 percent increase budget. When material costs go up, that meant less books even before the $30,000 cut. A library without good books and new materials just becomes a museum. Our children do deserve a quality education but the use of the library is a big part of it.”

As for the transfer station, the Board of Selectmen was working on what it would mean for its operation, but it would 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 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.