Simsbury board outlines $128.5 million FY25–26 budget; public speakers urge continued library support and warn on taxes

The Simsbury Board of Finance on April 8 presented a proposed FY2025–26 town and education budget totaling about $128.45 million and outlined a plan to smooth a near-term spike in debt-service costs by using capital reserves, while public commenters urged continuing support for the Simsbury Public Library and warned about rising property taxes.

Board of Finance Chair Lisa Hefner said the combined town and Board of Education proposal, together with the fire district mill rate (which is set separately), would result in an estimated 2.55% tax increase and a sample mill rate of 34.16. For town and education budgets only, Hefner said the estimate is a 2.36% tax increase; she gave an example that a Simsbury home assessed at $400,000 would see about a $238 annual increase, or roughly $19.83 a month. “We worked hard to present a budget under 2.5%,” Hefner said.

The nut graf: Officials said the budget balances rising contractual and special-education costs, higher debt-service from prior capital projects, and minimal grand-list growth, while using one-time reserves to limit the immediate mill-rate impact. Residents at the hearing nonetheless urged caution, pressed for continued library programming, and asked the boards to plan for longer-term fiscal pressures.

Hefner told the hearing that the budget request totals roughly $128,451,969 and represents a 4.65% increase in total spending compared with the current year. Major drivers she highlighted include a $3.3 million (about 3.9%) increase in the Board of Education budget, a roughly $850,000 (2.95%) increase in the town operating budget, and an approximately $1.5 million (about 18.7%) rise in debt service tied to borrowing for previously approved projects such as Latimer Lane. Because the grand list grew very little (about 0.19%), Hefner said the town is relying on a mix of increased state aid, new non-tax fees, spending reductions and limited use of reserves to keep the mill-rate increase below the headline spending increase.

Officials described a debt-service smoothing plan that uses $1.3 million in capital reserves in year one, $700,000 in year two and $300,000 in year three to lower the immediate tax impact while the town pays down the borrowings that produce the spike.…