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Salisbury reviews draft budget figures

SALISBURY — The Board of Finance received initial 2024-25 budget proposals from the Board of Education and the Board of Selectmen in a hybrid (online and in person) meeting Thursday, March 7.

Salisbury Central School Principal Stephanie Magyar led the discussion of the SCS budget proposal, which has a bottom line of $6,548,357, an increase of $208,083 (3.28%).

Region One business manager Sam Herrick handled the regional tuition side. That figure is $4,402,815, an increase of $226,703 (5.43%).

Magyar said most of the SCS budget proposal involves expenditures that are “beyond our control” such as health insurance and contractual increases:

“There’s not a ton of wiggle room.”

First Selectman Curtis Rand presented the municipal budget proposal. As it stands now, the total is $8,622,853, an increase of $403,023 (4.9%).

The selectmen aren’t finished. Rand said that negotiations with Town Hall and town crew employees will begin soon.

But “the trend is around 5%” for an increase in municipal spending, he added.

Comptroller Joe Cleaveland said he’s not 100% sure, but the increase in spending can probably be handled without increasing the mill rate.

At the Board of Finance meeting Wednesday, March 20, the board will receive final budget proposals and vote to present them at a public hearing Monday, April 22.

Patrick L. Sullivan
Senior Reporter
Patrick Sullivan has been a reporter for The Lakeville Journal since 2004, covering everything from town meetings to local characters and the outdoors. He grew up in Northern Virginia but spent summers on Mount Riga in Salisbury, giving him a lifelong connection to the Northwest Corner. A graduate of Denison University, Patrick is also the author of Tangled Lines, the newspapers’ popular fly-fishing column—making The Lakeville Journal, as far as anyone knows, the only newspaper in Connecticut with a regular fly-fishing columnist. He once received a fan letter from England, which he considers sufficient evidence that his work has achieved international acclaim.

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