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finance

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%.

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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