Selectmen present budget proposal in Bridgewater

Bridgewater selectmen have brought in a budget proposal figure of $7,066,066 for 2010-11 fiscal year, at a 5 percent increase over the present year.

The figure includes the town's portion of the Region 12 schools budget -- $4,912,356, which reflects an increase of $233,699 over 2009-10.

The municipal side of $2,153,710 would include a 2 percent salary increase for public employees. In this year's budget, salaries were kept flat.

Capital improvements were kept to a minimum in the 2010-11 budget with just $76,000 requested.

"We've held back on a lot of capital improvements," First Selectman Bill Stuart said Tuesday. "Of our $100,000-plus increase, a lot of it is capital requests. It wouldn't be a responsible budget if we didn't keep the infrastructure up."

Mr. Stuart is hopeful the Board of Finance will draw from the general fund to offset any mill rate increase. There would be an anticipated .4 mill increase if that does not happen, he said. The present mill rate is 15.2.

The selectmen's budget will be presented to the Board of Finance at its Wednesday meeting.

This year, the finance board will be given all expenditures for the year, as well as all anticipated revenue and a choice of three mill rates to set the budget at next week's meeting.

-- Susan Tuz