After meeting several times to deliberate, the Board of Finance (BOF) finalized its recommended Fiscal Year 2027 budget and a 2.69% mill rate increase to bring to voters in May, though some elements could still shift as the Board of Selectmen gives the plan a final review Monday night.
The BOF’s action followed a more than five-hour meeting on Thursday, Apr. 9, where members made a series of changes — reducing some line items while increasing others — to the Board of Selectmen’s proposed FY 2027 budget, and a Special Meeting on Sunday, Apr. 12, where those decisions were formally adopted through required resolutions that will go before voters.
The Board of Selectmen is scheduled to meet tonight, Monday, Apr. 13, to review the BOF’s changes and may vote to shift funding within the budget. While the BOS cannot increase the overall spending level approved by the BOF, it may, with at least four votes, reallocate funds and potentially restore some items that were reduced by the BOF.
In a memo sent Apr. 10 to First Selectman Toni Boucher and the Board of Selectmen, BOF Chair Tim Birch characterized the board’s changes as an “effort to find common ground,” while also pointing to broader challenges throughout the budget process. He noted the absence of prior-year financial data, described current-year information as “a work in progress,” and said efforts to engage the interim CFO in public discussion had been unsuccessful.
Birch’s memo also emphasized the BOF’s goals of limiting the tax rate increase to 3% or less and building reserves for infrastructure, while outlining the same package of reductions and additions later approved by his board.
The Apr. 9 meeting was where the BOF finalized how it would handle the proposed BOS budget, including a series of reductions and additions across departments. The Apr. 12 meeting was a required step to formally adopt those decisions through statutory resolutions that will be presented at the Annual Town Meeting on May 5, 2026.
At the Apr. 12 meeting, the BOF unanimously approved a total general fund operating budget of $151,701,690, along with a mill rate of 25.0623. This includes a $100,459,485 Board of Education budget and a $37,912,303 Board of Selectmen operating budget.
The BOF reduced the BOS operating budget by a net $54,952 while adding $330,000 to the capital budget, primarily for the purchase of a new Department of Public Works dump truck and related equipment.
Despite prior criticism of Town Hall and the Board of Selectmen over incomplete or delayed information during the budget process, the Apr. 12 meeting revealed some internal friction within the BOF itself.
Vice Chair Rudy Escalante, presiding for the first part of the meeting (Birch entered the meeting late after voting on the resolutions began), initially sought to have the Board approve the resolutions as a single package. However, members Kim Healy and Prasad Iyer objected, raising concerns about how votes from the April 9 meeting had been recorded and whether the tallies accurately reflected their positions.
“I’m not comfortable being on the record voting in the affirmative,” Healy said.
Healy and Iyer advocated for voting on each of the 10 individual components separately — including revenues, debt service, capital expenditures, reserves and the mill rate — to ensure accuracy and transparency.
Escalante pushed back, at one point saying, “You want to vote on everything again, do the whole meeting over that we did before?” and later adding, “Can we just get through the meeting!”
The board ultimately proceeded to read and vote on each item individually.
All components were approved, though not unanimously. Healy cast dissenting votes against both the BOS operating and capital budgets, while she and Iyer opposed the mill rate, debt service, and total operating budget. Iyer was also the lone vote against the reserve fund allocation.
Birch did not participate in the votes on the budget resolutions.
The BOF’s Apr. 9 adjustments included reductions of $110,000 in miscellaneous expenses, $120,000 in group insurance, $110,000 in Department of Public Works salaries, $18,101 in first selectman salary, and $4,000 in recreational swimming.
At the same time, the board added $159,899 for a proposed town administrator position, $125,000 to support Board of Education nursing costs, and $22,250 for the Ambler Farm building fund — resulting in the net $54,952 reduction to the BOS operating budget.
With the BOF’s work complete, the finalized budget will go pass through one more review with the Board of Selectmen on Monday, Apr. 13 before being presented to voters for their consideration at the Annual Town Meeting on May 5, 2026.