Cornwall passes budget

CORNWALL — Residents of Cornwall gathered at Cornwall Consolidated School on May 19 to vote on the 2023-24 town budget. The result was unanimous approval of next year’s spending plan.

All 13 residents in attendance voted in favor of the budget. First Selectman Gordon Ridgway thanked all departments for their efforts to keep spending relatively flat despite rising costs.

“I would just like to thank all the people that have worked on this since January,” said Ridgway. “We all work together to try to make this as sensible and pain free as possible.”

Total expenses for the town of Cornwall in 2023-24 will be $7,768,573, a $276,100 (3.69%) increase from last year’s budget of $7,492,473.

Of that figure, $1,847,118 will go toward the Region One high school budget. This is a $396,904 (27.37%) increase over Cornwall’s $1,450,214 contribution to the 2022-23 high school budget.

Cornwall Consolidated School has been allocated $2,633,903 next year, a decrease of $31,080 (-1.17%) from last year’s budget of $2,664,983.

This puts total education spending at $4,481,021 in Cornwall, which represents a $365,824 (8.89%) increase over $4,115,197 spent last year.

The Board of Selectmen’s operating budget and capital fund was set at $2,942,689. This is a decrease of $91,164 (-3%) compared to $3,033,853 in 2022-23.

For debt service, Cornwall allocated $344,863 for 2023-24, up $1,440 (0.42%) from $343,423 in 2022-23.

Cornwall also transferred $350,000 from the unassigned general fund in order to keep the mill rate at 14.70 (up 1.47% from last year’s 14.49 mill rate).

The new budget will go into effect July 1, 2023.