By David Fortier
When the Bristol Board of Finance and the City Council convene this evening in a Joint Budget Meeting in council chambers at 5:30 p.m., they will be voting to approve a General Fund of $229,115,085 for the fiscal year 2024-2025.
“I am very proud of my group,” board chair David Maikowski said in a phone conversation this morning. “I think everyone worked very hard.”
Maikowski, for whom this budget process is his first as chair, said he was familiar with the process, having been able to shadow former chair John Smith before he stepped down after years of service.
“We approached this year understanding it would be challenging because the grand list was not as robust as in the past,” Maikowski said.
He said this year’s grand list would be generating an estimated increase of $563,500 dollars, unlike past years.
With that in mind, the board requested that departments come back with a zero increase, which he qualified as maintaining services that residents had come to expect while respecting contractual agreements.
“But no expansion,” Maikowski said.
“Departments did the absolute best they could,” he added, “and that is what we got,” stressing that departments were not asked to cut any positions or services.
Regarding the Board of Education, which involves the biggest portion of the general fund, the city contributed a 1.65 percent increase, but between the city and other funding sources, he said, the total increase was 3.9 percent. The Board of Education had originally asked for a 4.1 percent increase.
The Joint Meeting will also vote on an increase in the mill rate. The mill rate has been split from a flat rate of 30.35 mills across the board to, for real estate and personal property, 31.85 mills and for motor vehicles, 32.46 mills.
Estimates of increases from the comptroller’s office as presented in budget workshops include, on average, for a household assessed with $187,629 in value for real estate and personal property, and on average for a motor vehicle valued at $10,828 the following increases:
- Under the previous mill rate, for real estate and personal property, $5,.695; under the increased rate, $5,976.
- Under the previous mill rate, for motor vehicles taxes, $329; under the increased rate, $351.
Maikowski said he was particularly grateful to the board for its time and effort as well as the comptroller’s office for its leadership.
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