Durham's Mill Rate to Increase 0.76 Mills Under Budget Proposal

At a lightly attended public hearing at Coginchaug High School Monday night, Durham town officials unveiled a $6.40 million 2013-2014 town budget.

Under the proposal, town spending would increase by $461,894 next year, or by 7.78 percent over current spending. The increase is due mostly to investment in town infrastructure and capital improvements, officials said.    

"The town has a number of needs in the future and what we're trying to do here with this money is begin planning for the future with the hope that we don't have to borrow the money when it's needed," said finance board chairman Fran Korn.

The budget includes $300,000 for town building improvements, $100,000 for culverts and $126,000 for highway equipment. There's also $100,000 to develop a town-wide fiber network to connect the town, emergency services, library, public works and the school district.

25 town departments decreased their budgets, while 30 increased their requests, Korn said. The budget includes a 2.75 percent raise for all full and part-time town employees.

If approved, the budget would increase the town's mill rate from 32.19 to 32.95, a figure that includes the current school district budget — a $34.87 million proposal that will be presented to voters on Wednesday.   

Durham First Selectman Laura Francis detailed the town's proposal to spend $22,000 on additional state police coverage. The money will be used to pay for an additional 60 shifts, giving police more time to focus on such areas as traffic enforcement, crime prevention and special investigations.

"We've been trying to address some pressing needs that I think we all could recognize that face our community," said Francis. "We decided that we would try to address them tactfully by deploying, kind of surgically, special details."

Only a handful of questions were asked during the hearing, which lasted about 45 minutes. The budget will be presented to voters at the annual town budget meeting on Monday, May 13.