Just a reminder that the Annual Town Meeting is Scheduled for Monday, June 5th at 7:00 p.m. at Tantasqua Regional High School. I hope to see everyone there.
The most important article to be discussed and voted upon is the annual fiscal year budget. Attached is the draft budget request for next year.
As you can see, the proposed budget from the Town Administrator & Board of Selectmen totals $31,477,500, an increase of 3.9% over last year. Some of the areas of note for the budget are as follows:
1) The Building Department and Board of Health have seen positions move from part time positions to full time posiitons. As you know the Town of Sturbridge have more than our fair share of restaurants and hotels and gathering places which put a decent burden on our inspectional offices. These additional hours will help these departments meet their state and local mandates.
2) Our Tantasqua Regional School allocation has seen a large (7.6%) increase due to the number of children attending the school district from Sturbridge.
3) Our Health Insurance line, while reduced from original estimates, has expected to increase over 11% from this year. I do credit our Insurance Advisory Committee and Finance Director for their efforts in working with our Insurance Carrier and me on bringing these rates down. More work will need to be done next year to ensure that this remains affordable for both the Town and the employees.
4) Our pension fund increases as a result of our actual expenses and represents an increase of over 10% from this year.
Please let me know if you have any questions about this draft budget.
Leon A. Gaumond Jr.
Town Administrator
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