Board Of Finance Finalizes Budget, Restores Money to East Lyme Public Library and Zoning

Last night's public hearing on the proposed budget for East Lyme drew three groups of people. 

Supporters of East Lyme Public Library turned out to ask that the Board of Finance restore the proposed $15,000 cut to its budget, which would have required the library to curtail its hours.

Zoning Commission members turned out en masse to ask the board to rescind its proposed cut to the town's Zoning Official's salary to keep the position full-time, as it has been for the past 28 years.

Then there were those who wanted the Board of Finance to make deeper cuts to the budget and lower taxes. 

And at the end of the night, they all got what they wanted, at least to some degree.

The Board of Finance voted to restore the $16,000 cut it had proposed to make to the Zoning Official's salary, and instead cut $4,000 from the Zoning Commission's budget for consultants. 

Though board members still trimmed the library's funding, they met the library director halfway, reducing the proposed cut of $15,000 to $7,500 so that the library wouldn't have to reduce its hours of operation. 

At First Selectman Paul Formica's request, the board also restored a proposed $5,793 cut to the assessor's office after learning that it would affect services provided to a variety of town departments. 

Having restored those funds, the Board of Finance then took recommendations for additional cuts proposed by First Selectman Paul Formica.

The board cut $10,000 from building maintenance heating and oil funds, $7,000 earmarked for legal ads, $2,500 from payroll, $17,000 from health insurance, $10,000 from road repair, and $1,500 from emergency management and from the tree warden respectively.

They also voted to approve Formica's suggestion that some of the surplus money that is typically put into the town's fund balance (a sort of savings account that allows the town to stay in good standing with the bond-rating agencies) into the general fund instead to provide some tax relief. 

Combined with earlier reductions, that brought the budget, originally proposed at $64.1 million down to $63.1 million. That's a $1.19 million increase over the budget for 2012-2013 and will mean a projected .58 increase in the town's mill rate (1 mill is equivalent to $2.5 million). 

That's lower than originally anticipated but as the Board of Finance Chairman Raymond Hart and Formica noted, the budget numbers are still fluid because until the state passes its budget, the town has no clear picture of what to expect on the revenue side of things. 

As of now, however, the budget is being prepared for publication. The town's annual meeting is set for May 13 and a referendum on the budget will be held May 23.