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Waterford Board of Finance approves $115.36 million FY2026-27 budget, restores $100,000 to schools
Summary
The Board of Finance voted 7-0 to approve a $115,364,670 town budget for FY2026-27 and forwarded it to the Representative Town Meeting. After public comment on class sizes, the board rejected a proposal to add $330,000 to the Board of Education budget and instead restored $100,000, setting the BOE total at $62,640,629.
The Waterford Board of Finance voted on March 25 to adopt the town's FY2026-27 budget totaling $115,364,670 and forwarded the measure to the Representative Town Meeting for final action.
The vote came after procedural motions to consider budget series subtotals without separate motions for each department. The board recorded unanimous approvals for most departmental line items and enacted several targeted reductions, including cuts to the insurance, retirement and capital improvement subtotals to arrive at revised amounts reported in the minutes.
Why it matters: The budget funds town operations, capital projects and debt service, and includes the Board of Education's appropriation. The board's decisions set spending levels that will affect municipal services and the school district's staffing and programming next year.
The Board addressed the Board of Education request in two motions. A motion to restore $330,000 to the BOE (mover Bill Sheehan, seconder Ann Peabody) failed 3-4. A subsequent motion (mover Jerry Fischer, seconder Ann Peabody) to restore $100,000 to the BOE passed 5-2, setting the BOE appropriation at $62,640,629. The minutes show the BOF then approved the BOE line item and a sequence of department budgets by recorded votes, most listed as 7-0-0.
The board also approved a number of line-item adjustments: a $12,064 reduction in the Assessor's budget, a $58,715 reduction to insurance, a $1,183,112 reduction to retirement, and a $175,000 reduction to current year capital improvements, among other revisions reflected in the adopted totals. The General Government Operations subtotal was listed at $40,619,584; Total Capital & Debt Service at $12,104,457; the combined total accepted was $52,724,041.
No formal challenges to the procedural approach were recorded; several members made motions and seconds noted in the minutes. The adopted budget will be sent to the Representative Town Meeting for consideration.
The meeting adjourned at 8:15 p.m.
Votes at a glance: Board of Education (10160) approved at $62,640,629 (after $100,000 restoration) — motion to restore $330,000 failed 3-4; multiple departmental budgets (assessor, insurance, retirement, public works, police, fire, library, debt service, etc.) were approved as recorded in the minutes, usually by unanimous vote (7-0-0).
