Simsbury reports $3.4 million year-end surplus; board recommends transfers to capital reserve

Simsbury—s finance director reported the town closed fiscal year 2025 with about a $3.4 million surplus, driving a revised general fund balance of roughly $24 million as of June 30, 2025.

Amy Merriweather, finance director and town treasurer, told the Board of Selectmen the surplus reflected roughly $2.3 million in revenue outperformance and about $1.1 million in expenditure savings. "Our total budget was $122,000,007.40 and our actuals came in at 125,000,050," she said, summarizing the revenue side. Major drivers were a higher-than-budgeted tax collection rate (about 99.5 percent versus a budgeted 98.5 percent), larger-than-expected motor vehicle supplemental collections, stronger-than-anticipated investment income and elevated building-permit receipts.

On expenditures, Merriweather said vacancies in several departments — notably in the police department, dispatch and some library positions — produced roughly $620,000 in salary savings and contributed to about $553,000 in employee-benefit savings. She also detailed a retiree-health insurance change that reduced monthly retiree costs from about $25,000 to roughly $17,000.

Why it matters: staff recommended using year-end results to bolster the town—s capital position while preserving reserve policy targets. "Anything over 16 percent gets transferred out," Merriweather said, and recommended transferring approximately $2.8 million into the capital reserve to bring the unassigned fund balance in line with Board of Finance policy.

Planned transfers and supplemental requests: the materials before the board proposed (a) a transfer of roughly $2.8 million to the capital reserve to reduce the unassigned fund balance to the Board of Finance—s 16 percent target; (b) two supplemental closeout requests: an $18,000 add to a town HVAC rooftop-units replacement project and a $150,000 supplemental for the Station Street roadway project to cover drainage, Connecticut DOT coordination and higher-than-anticipated asphalt/construction costs.

Board action: The board voted to recommend the general fund closeout transfer request, the general fund year-end budget transfers and the capital transfer requests to the Board of Finance for approval. The matters will appear at the Board of Finance—s next meeting for public hearing and final action.

Background and next steps: Merriweather also presented capital project closeouts that returned bond funds (a nearly $3.3 million return on a previously closed state-aided project) and other cash-funded project surpluses to their originating funds. Staff said those returned bond funds can be applied to projects planned for fiscal 2026 and 2027, which can reduce planned future bonding and debt service. The Board of Finance will take the formal closeout and appropriation actions at its next meeting.

Sources: Finance Director Amy Merriweather presentation to the Board of Selectmen, Nov. 7, 2025 (year-end revenue and expenditure summary; capital closeout schedules).