Middlebury Select Board approves FY27 budget for presentation to voters

The Middlebury Select Board voted Jan. 27 to present a proposed FY27 general fund budget totaling $15,998,045 to voters at the town meeting, after staff outlined five changes since the public hearing that modestly altered revenues and expenditures.

Town staff said the updated draft increases projected local-option tax revenue by $50,000 and reports the college’s payment in lieu of taxes at $238,253. The package includes a $350,000 planned transfer from local-option tax reserves aimed at supporting the library’s debt service and other allocations and restores $15,000 in capital funding for the ski park. The revised budget also increases the Charter House social-services contribution by $1,500.

The board and residents pressed staff to explain that portions of the $350,000 drawing are transfers from existing reserves rather than newly collected revenue. Officials said the document shows local-option tax receipts as both a revenue projection and a separate reserve drawdown to make the use visible to voters.

Several participants asked for clearer, reader-friendly materials ahead of town meeting: highlights of what changed from prior versions, percentage-driven “drivers” of the tax-rate change, and a concise one-page expenditures summary. A resident asked how the town can show a deficit budget and what it means; staff replied that the shortfall would be funded from the general fund balance and that the practice is a planned drawdown of savings.

Following discussion, the board approved a motion to present the FY27 general fund budget and related articles to voters at the March town meeting. The motion passed by voice vote.

The board directed staff to prepare clearer explanatory materials for voters and consider additional outreach (email blasts, Front Porch Forum) to improve public access to budget documents ahead of the meeting.