The proposed operating budget for the town of Jaffrey is up 3.1-percent from last year, a rise town officials attribute to mandatory costs increasing.
With Town Manager Dave Caron departing at the end of the week, the Select Board and Budget Committee held a joint meeting to discuss a preliminary budget report. With increases in categories like health insurance, retirement, and worker’s compensation, Caron said it was a challenge to decrease the budget funding existing programs as they currently are.
“The Select Board set a goal of a three to five-percent budget drop,” said Caron. “That target would require a drop in services provided by the town.”
Should the budget remain as presented, the town portion of the tax rate is estimated to increase about to $11.31, a 12-cent increase over the 2016 rate. Overall, the operating budget is scheduled to increase $195,105, up from 2016’s $6.3 million mark.
The town’s water and sewer budgets, which are separate from the operating budget, are both due to decrease, pending any recommendations made by the select Board or Budget Committee. The water budget is due to decrease to $875,652, down 11.3-percent from 2016. The sewer budget is due to drop to $2 million, down 1.1-percent from this year.
Warrant articles are due for a large decrease in 2017’s proposed budget, dropping to $1.4 million in requests, down 68.7-percent from what was asked for at Town Meeting in 2016.
The proposed budget currently does not account for any recommendations being asked for by the town’s recycling committee. The budget also does not include any costs that may be asked for the replacement of the Meetinghouse roof, which would come in the form of a warrant article if proposed.
Over the next couple months, the budget committee will begin to drill deeper into the budget in order to make a recommendation about any potential changes, in order to prepare the budget for Town Meeting.
Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com. He is also on Twitter @nhandyMLT.