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Sugar Hill administrator outlines 2025 budget; Rooms & Meals revenue reported
Summary
Town Administrator Jennifer Gaudette presented the proposed 2025 budget, citing underspending in 2024, modest line-item increases (audit, insurance), a $3,500 allocation for voting machines with a state match, and $66,296 in Rooms and Meals revenue.
Town Administrator Jennifer Gaudette presented the Select Board with the proposed 2025 executive budget at the Feb. 3 public hearing, outlining line-by-line changes and answering questions from residents and department representatives.
Gaudette said the town’s 2024 executive budget was underspent in part because Select Board members do not take a salary and the town did not fully use the assistant budget. She called out several specific changes in the 2025 proposal: an extra $2,000 to cover the annual audit; $7,600 for the Planning Board to finish the Master Plan to be funded by the Conservation Commission; and limited revaluation work confined to pickups, abatements and change-of-tax cases.
On elections, Gaudette said the town will have one election in 2025 and that the State requires poll pads at Town Meetings and handicap-accessible voting machines. The 2025 budget includes $3,500 for new voting machines; the State is expected to provide a matching $3,500.
The insurance line reflects increases for health, general liability and workers’ compensation. Gaudette said current health coverage is split 90/10 between the town and employees and that employee paybacks are budgeted at $16,105; the town also retains two insurance buyouts that reduce costs. Telephone and fuel expenses across departments remain uncertain.
Gaudette also reported the town received $66,296 in Rooms and Meals Tax for the year. Building Inspections were supported by permit fees of $8,336 in 2024 and short-term rental fees totaled $2,250. Capital spending includes the fourth year of a five-year note for the highway garage solar system and the second year of a truck lease is being proposed as a warrant article.
Gaudette closed by noting that tax impacts approved at the 2024 town meeting will appear on warrant articles funded through taxation.
The Select Board adjourned the hearing at 7:17 PM; the next regular meeting is scheduled for Feb. 10, 2025, at 5:00 PM at the Crapo Building.
