Westport’s Board of Finance tonight pored over First Selectman Jim Marpe’s proposed $91,639,626 budget for 2016-17, a .8 percent or $727,396 increase over the current year.
Westport Board of Finance members meet in an informal workshop session tonight to review the 2016-17 proposed budget. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
It was the first of the finance board’s three-night informal review of the budget, with tonight’s focus on the police and fire department budgets, plus the town’s contribution to pensions and the OPEB (other post employment benefits) account.
“A lot of these numbers are new to us, and we’ll be meeting this week with all the town departments,” said Michael Rea, finance board vice chairman.
Marpe’s proposed budget combined with the Board of Education’s would amount to an overall town budget of $205,588,568, a 1.49 percent increase.
Finance board members who picked up their budget books over the weekend said they were pleased to see small increases, not to mention a .89 percent decrease from in the police department’s proposed $8,171,108 operating budget.
The decrease represents a savings of $73,037 as the department is permanently deleting one full-time sworn officer position from its authorized ranks of 63 and one of its six civilian employee positions.
Board of Finance members were also surprised to hear from Police Chief Dale Call, whose salary is $142,252, that he will be retiring this year after 32 years on the force.
The Fire Department’s proposed 2016-17 $9,177,476 budget represents a 2.43 percent increase—$217,486—over the current year.
According to Fire Chief Andrew Kingsbury, the increase is due to the fact that the firefighters are in the final year of a contract with 2.5 percent bump.
With OPEB 80 percent funded to date, the budget contribution for 2016-17 is $6,183,756, 4.2 percent less that the current contributions based on actuarial contributions.
Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in Room 309/307 of Town Hall, the Board of Finance will go over the municipal budgets for Parks and Recreation, Wakeman Town Farm, Public Works, Sewer Department and general government.
Wednesday’s review is set for 1 to 5 p.m. in the Westport Library’s seminar room to examine budgets for: the Westport Library; Earthplace, Westport Transit District, Westport Weston Health District; and Department of Human Services.
—James Lomuscio
