Vice Chair Phil outlines $21,000,566,802 proposed 2025–26 district budget; reserves used to soften town assessments

Vice Chair Phil presented the district's proposed 2025–26 budget at $21,000,566,802, saying the plan reflects an 8.63% overall increase driven largely by operating costs and rising energy bills. "It's $21,000,566,802 dollars," Phil stated during the meeting.

The proposal, Phil said, reflects negotiated salary increases of approximately 3.5% and a roughly $550,000 (13%) increase in electricity expense. To limit impacts on the district towns, leadership proposes using $900,000 from reserve funds to reduce individual town assessments. "Believe it or not, if we had not used that 900,000 to reserve funds, our assessment would have been 11.5% increase," Phil said, noting the reserve draw lowers the Middletown assessment to about a 4.33% increase.

Staff framed the use of reserves as a temporary smoothing measure: capital improvements were reduced to $2,000,000 and other operating choices were adjusted to limit immediate tax or assessment impacts. Joe, who presented the district figures, confirmed that the sewer connection assessment rose to $5,335,673, an increase of $278,093 from the prior year.

Board members asked for further detail and staff said representatives from district leadership (identified as Art and John) will attend the WPCA’s March or April meeting to walk through the full budget packet and answer questions. The board did not take a vote on the budget at this meeting; staff said the subcommittee and full WPCA will have additional opportunities to review the packet and to provide formal approvals or signatures where needed.