Shrewsbury – Town Manager Kevin Mizikar reported on the status of the town’s fiscal year (FY) 2022 budget at the Board of Selectmen’s Jan. 26 meeting.
Total revenue for FY 2021 was $146,080,932. FY 2022 is budgeted at $153,250,592 which reflects an increase of $7,169,660.
“Now that we know what the cost of the bonds are that we sold for the police station that determines the additional tax that will be raised to cover the cost of those bonds,” Mizikar said.
He said that the cost of those bonds is roughly $2.3 to $2.4 million year over year.
The significant drivers of the increase come from an additional $2,843,979 in taxation, exempted tax levy growth of $2,385,411 and $1.1 million from Shrewsbury Electric and Cable Operations for debt servicing their “Fiber to the Home” project.
“In total, although the vast majority of this is going to some form of debt service – over almost $3.5 million dollars of it…the balance will be available for utilities and the general fund budget for operations,” Mizikar continued.
Relevant to preliminary analysis of municipal department head budget requests, Mizikar said that those requests included utilities and operating support for both the municipal and school side of the town budget. However, it didn’t include the full School Department budget.
“A quick look at the bottom line is that requests exceeded available revenue by $633,000,” he noted.
Selectman John Samia recommended extracting out enterprise fund revenue which are not part of the general revenue stream.
Mizar said that COVID-19 costs were not included in the budget analysis, but that the town has approximately $1 million left in CARES Act funding that he anticipates will carry them through the end of the fiscal year.
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