Boucher to Bd. of Finance: 3% Budget Increase Guidance for Selectmen is Challenging

With budget season beginning to unfold, the Board of Finance unanimously approved a budget calendar that will culminate with the Annual Town Meeting on Tuesday, May 6.

The BOF members also got a first glimpse of what setting the Fiscal Year 2026 budget will look like, as First Selectman Toni Boucher, who attended Tuesday’s (Jan. 14) monthly BOF meeting in person, indirectly warned them that meeting their 3% budget guidance may be challenging this year for the Board of Selectmen.

“We’re gonna work very hard, but again your budget guidance was substantially difficult for us,” she said.

BOF Chair Matt Raimondi said budget season was officially underway following Superintendent Kevin Smith‘s budget presentation to the Board of Education on Thursday, Jan. 9, in which Smith proposed a $96.97 million school budget that amounts to a 4% increase over the current budget — exactly what the BOF had suggested for the school side of the budget.

“He came in at a 4.00% increase, which was right on the money for our guidance,” Raimondi said.

“As chair of the Board of Finance, I am grateful … He said he took us very seriously. We voted unanimously. That meant something to them and they’ve prioritized the spirit of collaboration that has existed between our boards,” he said.

While the school side had a 4% increase guidance, the BOF suggested the Board of Selectmen keep its budget increase to 3% or less, something Boucher indicated may be hard.

“We only started around 5- or 6%,” she said, citing the preliminary 2025-26 budget that was discussed in the late fall and crafted to allow wiggle room to accommodate potential salary increases that would still be under negotiation through this spring.

“We’re gonna work as hard as we can, like the school system, to come in at your budget guidance, but it is an entire percentage more of a cut than our partners on the other side,” she said, “so that’s something to think about as we go through this.”

Raimondi said he had heard the question of why the town-side budget guidance was one percentage point less for the BOS than the BOE brought up a few times.

“The reason why the Board of Finance made that guidance on the Board of Ed side, their wage increase was around 4%,” he said. “They’re also adding some head swell, but it’s at 4%.”

“The Board of Selectmen does not have a wage increase at that level,” he said. “Historically the wage increase across the couple different pockets, depending on the union, (is) between 1- and 2-point-something percent, so it’s been substantially lower.”

Boucher didn’t argue.

“Well, I hope you’re right,” she said, “because we have not yet received the final decisions on four unions negotiations, so that is an uncertain (number).”

“We did deliberate on that point and we did discuss it,” Raimondi said.

Boucher cited a range of reasons for her concern, noting that the population in Wilton has expanded, particularly since the pandemic, and the need for services has increased.

“We are growing as a community … (the pandemic) stretched us very thin (and) has put a lot of stress on the staffing,” she said, citing an inadequate number of firefighters, as well as people in the finance department who are handling two jobs simultaneously.

“As I said, we’re working really, really hard right now … We already did a preliminary run,” she said. “We’ll have to go through it again, but there’s not a lot of extra room that people are hoping for, that you might have anticipated.”

Budget Calendar

Meanwhile, the BOF solidified a schedule for budget meetings over the next few months.

With the BOE holding budget workshops over the next two weeks, the finance board is scheduling a joint meeting with the BOE on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

“I would invite people to send questions,” Raimondi told his board members, as he said Smith and his staff may need additional time to research answers prior to that meeting.

Raimondi said Boucher is expected to present her budget to the BOS on Friday, Jan. 31. 

“We can see what that looks like and discuss that at the February meeting,” Raimondi said.

The BOF has a joint meeting with the selectmen scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 20.

With regular BOF meetings scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 19 and then Tuesday, March 11, the BOF intends to hold its official public hearing with the BOS on Wednesday, March 19, and then its official public hearing with the BOE one week later on Wednesday, March 26.

The BOF has then scheduled budget deliberation sessions on Tuesday-Thursday, April 1, 2 and 3, depending on how much time is needed.

Boucher is scheduled to present capital bonding projects at the BOF’s Tuesday, April 8 regular meeting.

Tuesday, April 15 is the deadline for the BOF to recommend a budget to the town, which will be considered at the Annual Town Meeting, which is scheduled for Tuesday, May 6.