April 10, 2007
Last night's first forum was well-attended at Raynham Middle School. A presentation was made by the B-R School Committee, and was followed by lively comments and questions about the budget process.
At this point, it appears likely that both towns may go forward and approve what has been called B-R Budget #2. This is not the budget voted by the B-R School Committee, but it has been accepted by 3 of the 4 town boards - in support Bridgewater Advisory Board, Raynham Board of Selectmen, Raynham Finance Board; against (supporting a lower assessment & budget #3) is Bridgewater's Board of Selectmen.
Budget #1=$55,991,989 // Bridgewater=$19,727,907 // Raynham=$12,536,599
Budget #2=$53,277,357 // Bridgewater=$18,014,974 // Raynham=$11,534,900
Budget #3=$51,832,918 // Bridgewater=$17,103,533 // Raynham=$11,001,902
Just because I like to play around with spreadsheets, and thinking about Bridgewater...
I started with the Bridgewater Advisory Board recommendations for FY08, then created a column for Bridgewater's 3-year Budget Plan. (Some may question that logic, but the Bridgewater Board of Selectmen formed a Committee to study Town finances, so I take into account their report and findings.) Created another new column for "Proposed Budget FY08 Contingency" which is one of: (a) 3-year plan or (b) Board of Selectmen plan or (c) Advisory Board plan or (d) Department request when known. {Click here to see the spreadsheet}
This all works out to a $3.6M deficit. Surprisingly, B-R is 46.8% of this - perhaps many were expecting the deficit to be all B-R. All of the other departments comprise the remaining 53.2% -- Highway 5.3%, Med-Life Insurance 11.7%, Wage Adjustment 6.8%, and so on.
Roughly, $3.6M is about 12% of amount raised through Bridgewater property taxes. Thus, the average tax bill would go up by that same 12% factor in the case of an override. So, a current $4,000 annual property tax bill would increase by about $480. If someone has the actual numbers - tax rate for fy08, total assessed value, average single-family house value - then a more accurate estimate can be made. (Just some back-of-envelope kind of math to create some rough approximations.) This does not take into account any tax increases related to current debt service, normal annual increases, revaluations, or anything else. I was just trying to get an idea of the scope of the issue.
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Joseph Gillis Jr.
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