Advisory Board) on FY2009 Budget
April 14, 2008
From work last week, it appears that the Bridgewater Board of Selectmen and the Bridgewater Advisory Board have reached a consensus on the FY2009 Budget. This would mean that the Town would not see competing budget proposals at Town Meeting - as has been the case in years past.
The following one-page summary shows original FY2008 appropriations, proposed FY2009 appropriations, and the change (in dollars and percentage). {Click here to download the report}
Ultimately, the budget will be determined by those in attendance at the May 5th Town Meeting. However, when a consenus budget is put forth by these two Boards, normally there is not much deviation or adjustment made at Town Meeting.
Under section 306 (schools), there are two numbers for Bridgewater-Raynham. The first is the appropriation for operations and the second is the amount to pay for debt-service on school projects. The "B-R Debt Exclusion" amount is paid for out of taxation, but not part of Town General Operating Revenue. This number should be revised to about $2.8M with the various school projects. This revision will not have any effect on the budget - it will however increase local property taxes based on prior votes to fund these capital project expenses.
A quick look at Bridgewater's total assessed property (MA DLS website) shows about $2.7B in total property value. Therefore, the increase of $629,330 to $2,864,876 in debt payments would mathematically translate into about $0.23 per thousand-dollar assessment. With an average house valued at $377,209 - this means an increase of $87.74 for school project costs. Incidentally, looking at the full $2.8M in capital project costs for the schools means that $399.41 of the average household assessment for FY2009 will be for school building projects. Final Important Note -- these are quick estimates based on published data and could change when Assessors and Treasurer/Collector do the final analysis and tax rate determination.
Bridgewater
Raynham
Easton
East Bridgewater
West Bridgewater
Massachusetts
Legislation & Politics
USA
Legislation & Politics
World
Education
Bridgewater-Raynham Schools
Massachusetts
USA
Archives (past stories)
Opinion/Analysis
Joseph Gillis Jr.
You can do something!
