Granby Drummer (https://granbydrummer.com/author/michael-b-guarco-jr/page/2/)
Every time election season rolls around, we are inundated with hyperbole about what the national and state candidates will do for the citizenry, with the unspoken part being what it will cost us, as if it comes without a price tag.
As summer winds down and autumn approaches, the board of finance shifts its focus from the close-out of the FY24 budget to monitoring the current FY25 budget and developing FY26, which runs from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026.
A primary focus of the Granby Board of Finance is to protect and strengthen, where reasonable, the town’s short and long-term financial position.
s anticipated, the Board of Finance set operating budget guidelines that reflect both the challenges faced by the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Education as well as the impact of inflation and scarcity in today’s post-pandemic environment.
The traditional Three Board Meeting held in mid-January began the focus on the budget for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25 runs from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.) At this meeting the Boards of Selectmen and Education presented their projected operating budgets, infrastructure and capital needs to the Board of Finance.
The Town of Granby closed the books on the fiscal year—FY23—that ended on June 30 in a strong financial position, as anticipated.
In the last Drummer issue, an article about the budget public hearing erred in saying that the money that the boards view as reserved for the upcoming communications project was included in the recently-approved FY24 budget. It is not in the budget.
Granby’s General Fund often shares the focus of the yearly budget process. While the operating budget itself can be viewed as similar to an income and expense statement as in business, the general fund is the checkbook through which all that budget activity runs and, in the end, is the repository for all of those monies coming in and going out—not just for the year but over the years since inception.
At its Feb. 15 meeting, the Board of Finance reviewed updated information relative to the budget for FY24 that begins on July 1. The total Grand List—subject to any final adjustments by the Board of Assessment Appeals—was filed as required with the state by Jan. 31, and showed an increase with revaluation of 28.34 percent over the Oct. 1, 2021, Grand List.
What has happened so far, and next steps