QUECHEE
Tues., March 1 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. (Australian Ballot) Hartford High School
Hartford is looking to fund the west “Pocket Park” between the Quechee Covered Bridge and the Simon Pearce mill and hire a half dozen new faces as part of the proposed municipal budget up for approval by residents at the annual town meeting on March 1.
Running the entire town of Hartford now costs just a tick under $24 million a year but, when user fees for things like water and sewer are subtracted, the amount to actually be raised by tax payers comes in at $16,401,595.
The pocket park represents a $140,000 line item in the 2017 budget while filling the vacant position of town manager and creating a new position for a finance director are estimated at $124,197 and $85,779 respectively.
The select board’s proposal also adds a policeman, a firefighter, a public safety dispatcher and another public works employee to the existing rosters.
For the first time in memory the town got a break this year on employee health care premiums to the tune of a $250,000 reduction because Hartford was finally able to enter onto the state’s health care exchange.
Hartford is calling for a 3.6 percent increase in the municipal tax rate per-hundred dollars of assessed property value. That would make the rate 94.51 cents per $100 of assessed property value, compared to the current rate of 91.11 cents.
For a home assessed at $200,000, a property owner could expect a $68 increase in their tax bill if voters approve the proposed budget on March 1.
At a public forum on the budget held earlier this month, Lannie Collins of Quechee grilled board members over the proposed new hiring, saying “There’s been no justification over the past year as to why we have to fill these positions. If you’ve been getting along fine without these people the past year (then) why now?”
Select board chair Chuck Wooster countered that the Department of Public Works and other departments “have less employees now than they had 10 or 15 years ago and more stuff to do.”
“We are using up our employees and using up our equipment at an unsustainable rate,” Wooster said.
Although a warning has been signed out for the annual school budget vote set to take place right alongside the town vote on March 1, the final tally there is much more up in the air. The state has not yet signed off on the Hartford district’s proposed 1.5 percent tax increase on a budget that would actually be down $1.1 million from last year. There is also still an open question as to how many of the eleven staff members in the school system who are eligible to retire will actually do so, especially with global stock markets sliding in recent weeks and questions as to how some of their 401K and other retirement accounts may be performing.
The final public discussion of both the school and town budgets is due to take place at the “Community Day” presentations on Saturday, Feb. 27 and the hope is that more of the school budget numbers will be solidified at that point. The forum will start at 10 a.m. in the auditorium at Hartford High School with a public hearing on the proposed local option tax.
— Eric Francis
This article first appeared in the February 25, 2016 edition of the Vermont Standard.