devoting to the B-R School System?
May 21, 2004
Bridgewater
Raynham
Easton
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Massachusetts
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Bridgewater-Raynham Schools
Massachusetts
USA
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Joseph Gillis Jr.
You can do something!
Being a person who enjoys numbers, and someone with a good memory for them, I found it interesting some of the quotes and numbers being tossed about as fact. Technically, 39.7% of Bridgewater's total budget in 2004 went to education. However, there are two pieces of the total budget that are normally removed to create an Operating Budget -- Enterprise Funds and Debt Service. If these accounts are removed, then Bridgewater is dedicating 50.1% of it available Operating Budget to education.
Click here to review the table, including data from fy01-fy04
The Enterprise Funds are self-sustaining accounts. They generate their own income to match their expenses. The Debt Service Accounts are for principal and interest payments on previously approved major purchases. For instance, account 753 is for the Elementary School Debt and is over $1.3M each year; account 756 is for the Police, Fire and Highway buildings and in 2004 (all finally done), the amount was over $600k. These project were outside of the restrictions of Proposition 2 1/2, and are not funded by the town's general income - they are surcharges to the tax rate.
