Old Lyme To Vote On Budget

On Monday, Old Lyme voters will be asked to vote on the budget put forward by the Board of Finance. But while budget votes can sometimes be contentious, the proposed budget for fiscal year 2013-2014 doesn't look likely to be one of them.

It's up just $169,825 over the budget approved last fiscal year, which means there's just a very slight increase in the mill rate from 19.26 to 19.30 mills. The gross property tax requirement is $30,502,222, and that's up only marginally from the budget that was approved for the last fiscal year, which was $30,332,397. (You can find the entire budget here.)

Challenges

The biggest challenge the town faced in putting together this budget, Old Lyme Board of Finance Chair Andrew Russell said, was not being certain about revenues from the state. 

Typically, towns have a pretty good idea of how much money they will receive from the state, but both Governor Dannel Malloy and the Legislature's Finance and Appropriations Committees have proposed changing the way the state provides funds to municipalities—although the budgets proposed by each are quite different from each other. 

In each case, towns may well lose funds they typically count on. The state Legislature won't vote on Connecticut's budget until later this summer. So, like every other municipality, Old Lyme has been forced to put together a budget without knowing for sure what the revenue side of the ledger will look like.

That being said, however, Old Lyme isn't overly dependent on state aid for its funding. Indeed, overall the town is in pretty good shape financially.

"We've got the highest bond rating you can have," said Russell, who noted that the town's grand list also increased to $5,151,980 and collection rates were at about 98.25 percent going into May. 

Tonight's meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Regional District No. 18 Middle School, Lyme Street, Old Lyme.

Other Items on the Agenda

In addition to being asked to adopt the budget, voters will also be asked to appropriate the additional sum of $180,000.00 for the town’s emergency management account in connection with Storm Sandy and to appropriate  $170,300.00 for the town’s emergency management account in connection with the February 2013 snowstorm.  

Both appropriations may be funded in part by federal monies under FEMA.

Please Note: The Old Lyme Board of Selectmen, which normally meets at 7:30 p.m., will meet today instead at 4 p.m. at Old Lyme Memorial Town Hall.