Education Budget 2021-2022
Finance Board Recommends $152.7 Million Operating Budget to RTM, With 3.15% Tax Increase
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The Board of Finance unanimously approved a $152.7 million operating budget, which would increase the mill rate to $16.84 a 3.15% increase from this year’s $16.33 if the Representative Town Meeting on May 10 passes the spending and tax plan unchanged. The board had received spending proposals from the Board of Selectmen and Board of Education which would have increased taxes by 7.32% Finance Board Chairman Jon Zagrodzky said at the board’s Tuesday night meeting. “Nobody likes a tax increase,” Zagrodzky said, but after to the “scary” budget proposals sent to the Board of Finance, the 3.15% mill rate increase “is much more palatable than what we started with, and not completely out of line, given the mill rate increases we’ve seen in the past. “But also, frankly, the expenditures that both boards [Education and Selectmen] are having to make, not just for operations, but for things like debt service,” he said. “So when you take all that into account, my general view is that we’ve ended up in a very good place — if you, again, think of everything from the union contract increases to COVID spending to general operating increases across the board.