KENT — Following discussion mostly on points of clarification and some minor adjustments, the Board of Finance voted unanimously at its regular meeting on Wednesday, April 19, to forward the town’s 2023-24 proposed budgets on to public hearing.
The public hearing will be held on Friday, May 5, at the Town Hall, beginning at 6 p.m. The hearing will afford residents an opportunity to ask questions and offer opinions on the proposed town budgets. The current budget draft is posted on the town’s website at www.townofkentct.org.
As presented, the proposed budget for town expenditures totals $6,283,283 with an additional $1,106,141 for capital expense. The total of the selectmen’s operating budget of $4,886,668 shows an increase of $313,013 (6.8%) over the current year.
The Kent Center School budget proposal of $4,954,047, when combined with the Region One component ($2,293,953), totals $7,248,000, an overall increase in the education budget of 0.09%.
Speaking of the selectmen’s budget proposal, First Selectman Jean Speck said, “All departments really came to the table with sharpened pencils. There are no large increases.”
And finance board chairman Nancy O’Dea-Wyrick pointed out that there is “not a lot of runway room” before the May 5 public hearing on the budgets.
Remembering the Swift House Committee’s request for $13,900, needed for an assessment of work needed to bring the historic house into Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, finance board member Casey Cogut asked for the selectmen’s opinion.
“The selectmen agree that the assessment be done,” Speck responded, indicating that there is urgency to the request. She has been seeking grant support and has been looking at the current year’s budget to see if residual funds could be used as the end of the fiscal year approaches.
Treasurer Barbara Herbst indicated that there is no excess money in the present budget and that the Board of Finance would need to approve any scrutiny of the budget to find funds.
Swift House Committee chairman Zanne Charity pointed out that she and town officials have been talking about the ADA assessment for many months.
Herbst noted that closer to the end of the fiscal year, she contacts each town department to determine the status of their accounts and whether they anticipate any residual funds.
Resident Patricia Orris questioned the decision to eliminate the proposed $16,000 expenditure for additional hours of state trooper protection for the town, speaking in defense of the expense. She urged that the finance board and the selectmen reconsider.
