Salisbury’s mill rate remains flat at 11

SALISBURY — After a quick meeting Wednesday, May 21, the Board of Finance voted unanimously to keep the mill rate for 2025-26 at 11 mills, the same as 2024-25.

The spending plans for the town and Salisbury Central School were approved unanimously, 26-0, at a town meeting Wednesday, May 14.

Comptroller Joe Cleaveland said in an email Thursday, May 22, that the finance board was able to cover the increased spending without a mill rate increase by using undesignated surplus funds combined with higher tax revenues from a $25 million increase in the grand list and from increases in building fees and investment income.

The municipal budget for 2025-26 has a bottom line of $9,205,102, an increase of $575,530 or 6.7%.

The budget for Salisbury Central School is for $6,897,148, an increase of $361,209 or 5.53%.

The Region One budget passed at a referendum vote May 6. The town’s Region One assessment is $4,781,093, an increase of $373,080 or 8.46% compared to last year.

Total town education spending is therefore $11,678,241, an increase of $734,289 or 6.71%.

Latest News

Ruth Franklin discusses ‘The Many Lives of Anne Frank’ at Beth David

Ruth Franklin and Ileene Smith in conversation at Congregation Beth David in Amenia.

Natalia Zukerman

Congregation Beth David in Amenia hosted a conversation on the enduring legacy of Anne Frank, one of the 20th century’s most iconic figures. Ruth Franklin, award-winning biographer and critic, shared insights from her highly acclaimed book “The Many Lives of Anne Frank” with thought-provoking questions from Ileene Smith, Editorial Director of the Jewish Lives series. This event, held on July 23 — the date Anne Frank would have turned 96 — invited the large audience to reconsider Anne Frank not just as the young writer of a world-famous diary, but as a cultural symbol shaped by decades of representation and misrepresentation.

Franklin and Smith dove right in; Franklin reading a passage from the book that exemplified her approach to Anne’s life. She described her work as both a biography of Anne Frank and a cultural history of the diary itself, a document that has resonated across the world.

Keep ReadingShow less
Prokofiev, piano and perfection: Yuja Wang at Tanglewood

Yuja Wang performs with the TMCO and Andris Nelsons.

Hilary Scott

Sunday, July 20 was sunny and warm. Nic Mayorga, son of American concert pianist, the late Lincoln Mayorga, joined me at Tanglewood to hear Yuja Wang play Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16. I first saw Wang on July 8, 2022, when she filled in for Jean-Yves Thibaudet on the opening night of Tanglewood’s summer season. She virtually blew the shed down with her powerful and dynamic playing of Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

Nic was my guest last season on July 13, when Wang wowed us with her delicate interpretation of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. We made plans on the spot to return for her next date in Lenox.

Keep ReadingShow less