At the Jan. 20 Three Board Meeting, members of the boards of selectmen, education and finance shared initial projections for what fiscal year 2027— running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027—may look like from their respective perspectives, and in aggregate. Under the terms of the budget guideline process, during the fall and into December, both administrations prepared their initial projections for the next fiscal year—the Plus-One look ahead. The board of selectmen and the board of education both forwarded their numbers to the board of finance for discussion at the Three Board Meeting.
The municipal operating request shows a 2.38 percent increase, partially accomplished by allocating some directly related expense to special revenue funds that generate their own income, such as Parks and Rec and transfer station fees under the Solid Waste Fund.
The education proposal reflects an overall operational increase of 3.8 percent, partly offset by the then-current projected revenue increase of $338K that appears in the revenue side of the ledger and is equivalent to 0.86 percent of the BOE budget.
On the revenue side, key pieces of information are needed to ascertain a full picture, such as the change in the Grand List as of last Oct. 1 that must be finished and filed with the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management by Jan. 31. When Governor Lamont addresses the opening session of the General Assembly on Feb. 4 we will see his revenue revisions, if any, for the second year of the state biennial budget.
A possible scenario for the overall town budget is that it will track a roughly 3 percent increase as will the mill rate change—comparable with slowly declining inflation. While I anticipate the finance board will look for less than 3 percent mill rate change come April, there are many components of the budget still to take shape. Some, such as revenues from other towns for both regular and special education tuition and reimbursements, are sometimes changing month to month.
At the meeting of the board of finance on Monday, Feb. 9 at 7 p.m., it will set operating budget guidelines for the two operating boards—though the boards already have taken heed of the budget worksheet from last spring that effectively provides initial guidance of targeting 3 percent. The BOF will take public comment in the beginning of the meeting. My colleagues and I will consider the information we have at that time and set guidelines. The boards of selectmen and education will get the actual budget requests from their respective administrations and begin their review and budget workshops by early March. Those are all open public meetings.
On Monday, March 23 at 7 p.m. in the Senior Center, the boards of selectmen and education will present their budget requests to the board of finance, completing its work in putting together what we deem a reasonable overall budget request to be sent to public hearing. There is no public comment that night.
Public comment and review will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 6 at the high school auditorium. Once ample time has passed for public input and questions, I will close the hearing and convene the board of finance to determine what, if any, changes are to be made. The FY27 budget request—as it stands, or as modified—shall be sent to a referendum on Monday, April 20 at Town Hall.
It is then that Granby voters and qualified taxpayers will decide whether to approve that budget, or reject it for further consideration.