Budget Plan For 2014 Calls For 3.2% Tax Increase

Town Manager Bill Sequino released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2014 Monday. The $52.5 million budget is an $1.8 million increase from the 2013 budget. Sequino said the reasons for the increase are higher salaries, spending on things like painting the exterior of Town Hall and road resurfacing, and higher pension costs.

The EG School Department's portion of the budget is $31.8 million, a $626,000 increase over 2013. The total schools budget is $34.7 million (including state aid and other revenue). 

The public is invited to weigh in on the budget at the budget hearing on Monday, April 8, at 7 p.m. at Swift Community Center. To see the entire budget, click here.

Sequino's budget reflects settled and anticipated salary increases of 2 percent for both municipal and school employees. Most of those employees have not seen a pay increase for the last two years. The contract with the police union is settled; contracts with the other two municipal unions and with the teacher's union are still to be settled.

The proposed budget seeks $88,000 in information technology (IT) spending, after what Sequino said was several years without a significant increase. The money would pay for part-time staff as well as software and hardware upgrades.

In addition, the budget proposes $250,000 for road resurfacing, a scratch on the surface according to both Sequino and Public Works director Joe Duarte, who say $1 million to $2 million is needed to fix roads (and sidewalks) in town properly.

Sequino has also put in $125,000 for painting Town Hall – half the estimated cost of the project. The other half would be included in the 2015 budgt. The reason for the high cost, Sequino said, is the scaffolding needed for the whole building.

Another 50 percent investment would be $130,000 toward the cost of a complete revaluation, something that's due in 2015. The town is required by state law to do property revaluations every three years – the first two can be partial revaluations, but the third one must be a complete revaluation, requiring on-site appraisers for every building. The estimated cost is $260,000.

There are also pension-related budget increases due to the passage of the pension legislation last year, including $116,000 for the police pension ($495,550 from 379,900), and a doubling of post-employee benefits (OPEB) line item, from $125,000 to $250,000.

The budget also contains $30,000 to regrade an infield of one of the EGHS baseball fields and $26,000 for tree replacement. Smaller increases come from a $4,000 boost in the grant to the EG Animal Protection League, returning it to $19,000, the funding level it saw in 2012. And the Teen Center saw a restoration to $10,000 from the 2013 level of $7,500.

Debt service for school and municipal buildings is still high – $1.85 million for 2014 – but that marks a decrease of $85,000 over 2013. Barring any additional incurred debt, that number will continue to drop, slowly.

Taxes contribute 88 percent of the town's revenue. Additional revenue comes from sources including state aid to education and revenue from the motor vehicle excise tax and the meals tax, which is anticipated to increase 14 percent in 2014, to close to $500,000. 

"People like to eat out in East Greenwich," Sequino noted. 

EG Patch will continue to report on the 2014 budget, delving into different areas in coming days. If you have a question or comment, leave it in the comments section or contact me at elizabeth.mcnamara@patch.com.