Coventry officials present $132.95M proposed budget, flagging health-care and legal costs

Coventry municipal officials presented key figures from the proposed FY2027 budget Wednesday night, emphasizing health-insurance increases, pension contributions and higher outside-legal costs as primary drivers of the roughly $5.8 million spending rise.

"The aggregate expenditure proposal submitted for fiscal 2027 totals $132,949,005.86," Director Savetti told the council, noting that represents a 4.57% increase. Savetti said projected state aid included in the budget is up by about $1.43 million (roughly 4.9%). He also told the council the town received notice that health care and dental premiums would increase substantially: "health care and dental cost premiums are increasing by approximately 17.49% for health care and 11.9% for dental," he said.

Savetti urged continued funding of the towns pension commitments, calling for ongoing contributions to the police and municipal pension plans and the school SRP pension, and highlighted debt-service costs tied to the $25 million school bond (interest-only GA 2 payments of roughly $1.2 million). He also described a proposed capital-improvement program and road-paving plan that would include about $550,000 in CIP and roughly $800,000 net for paving after expected state reimbursements.

Council members questioned several departmental lines. On legal costs, Savetti said the solicitor's budget had been increased by $100,000 largely to cover outside counsel for ongoing litigation, and that the solicitor line itself had been reduced while outside counsel spending rose. "When we say solicitor's budget, we're looking at the really legal department as overall," he said, adding the town has seen outside counsel bills fluctuate with litigation.

Council discussion also focused on personnel incentives and benefits. Councilman Hall criticized some incentive levels and retirement/benefit matches, pressing the administration for precise cost breakdowns and noting the town had already reduced some new-employee stipends in the personnel handbook. The council discussed longer-term strategies to expand the tax base, including reviving an economic-development commission and working more with the Chamber of Commerce.

The budget workshop continued with department-by-department detail and the school department presentation later in the meeting; the council directed staff to update figures to reflect newly announced health-rate increases and to continue working with the auditor general on a multi-year deficit-reduction plan.

The council recessed the public portion and later voted unanimously to enter an executive session to discuss pending litigation.