BETHEL – Town Manager Scott Cole proposed a $2.8 million budget Thursday. It represents a 15.1 percent increase, or $371,796, over last year’s budget of $2,464,846.
Proposed operating costs are $2,232,628 (up $112,290 over last year); capital costs, $386,000 (up $222,700); and debt service of $218,014 for the fire station loan (up $36,806). These total $2,836,642.
The proposed budget’s impact, when combined with preliminary estimates of county and SAD 44 school assessments, means residents could expect a new tax rate of $19.23 per $1,000 of value, Cole said.
“This calculation is based on critical assumptions that are subject to change,” he said.
These assumptions include:
• Adoption of all revenue and spending measures, as proposed
• 2.8-percent growth ($5,820,309) in townwide taxable value, per 1987 values
• 5 percent increase in Bethel’s school assessment levied by SAD 44
• No use of undesignated fund balance.
The $19.23 tax rate represents a $3.73 increase per $1,000 of value over the current rate of $15.50 per thousand of value, Cole stated Thursday in a letter to selectmen and the Budget Committee.
The two groups are to begin budget deliberations in a joint meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, March 14, in the town office.
Proposed capital costs include an estimated $150,000 for the revaluation of taxable properties, $120,000 for transfer station improvements, and the following:
• $26,000 for police cruisers
• $6,500 for a hay chopper
• $48,500 to improve 0.7 miles of Bird Hill Road
• $5,000 to improve Bailey Road
• $5,000 for curbing and sidewalk work
• $20,000 for a top coat of pavement at the new fire station
• $5,000 to restore town cemeteries
Forty-five percent of funding for the transfer station improvements, Cole said, is to come from Hanover and Newry; Bethel pays the remainder.
“The cost of revaluation and transfer station improvements, coupled with non-utilization of fund balance to buy down’ the tax rate, serve to substantially increase the initial estimate of tax rate,” Cole said.
He said that while locally assigned values are based on 1987 market data, and total approximately $212 million, current market data indicates that Bethel’s total taxable value should be $261,950,000.
“A revaluation will allow the town to better assign its tax burden according to market values, along with several long-term benefits. A revaluation of properties is inevitable,” he said.
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