A closer look at Colchester’s FY25 municipal services budget

COLCHESTER — This Town Meeting Day, the $15.9 million municipal services budget on Colchester's ballot is set to increase property taxes by 4.63%.

Compared to last year, some areas of the budget are expanding more than others in order to maintain the town's same level of service, Deputy Town Manager Renae Marshall said.

Here's a breakdown to better understand how your taxes are being spent.

Planned expenses

The planned expenditures for three of the town's 25 service areas have been reduced, one is remaining the same and four increased by $5,000 or less. Within all other areas, costs are climbing into next year by increases larger than $5,000.

One of the most significant changes needed to maintain the current level of service includes an infusion of $681,272 in salary and benefits for seven new positions created to maintain the current level of service to the community, particularly within the police department.

These new positions are set to include two new full-time police officers, increasing the number of sworn officers from 29 to 31; one full-time civilian support services manager in the police department to oversee records and public safety communications which is currently performed by a police lieutenant; one full-time information technology manager to manage expanding needs in public safety and other town departments to handle cybersecurity threats, software and network connectivity; a human resources coordinator in light of heightened employee turnover rate; the aforementioned full-time firefighter added but not budgeted for in FY24; and a new full-time paramedic in the rescue department to allow the assistant rescue chief to provide more day-to-day management since combining the fire and rescue chief position.

Examples of the areas where external factors increased costs significantly to maintain the current level of municipal service include:

An increase of $122,817 for town employee health insurance, as the health carrier raised its rates by 12%, though these costs would have been even higher had the town not negotiated directly with multiple insurance companies; Costs accounting for a new Vermont child care tax to add $27,681, a number which reflects the town's portion of this payroll tax at 0.33% on all employee wages; An increase of $88,382 on services and utilities With $6,600 for increased professional services for annually recurring fees in mapping software and computer-assisted appraisal;

$9,550 for increased costs of planning and zoning legal fees based on actuals,$9,357 in increased costs in the Colchester Police Department for training, vehicle fuel and vendor contracts;$5,900 of increased costs in the Colchester Fire Department for vehicle maintenance and fuel;

$20,064 due to increased costs in department of public works highway division needs, such as for utilities, including streetlights and tree maintenance costs for hazardous tree removal throughout the town's right-of-way;

$5,400 due to increased maintenance costs for Town Hall for contracted services as well as building supplies and parts;

$17,866 due to increased costs for contracted services and repairs, maintenance and fuel costs;

$5,400 due to increased costs for fireworks as well as utilities and maintenance costs for the Activity Center;$8,245 for an additional day of janitorial services to clean the Meeting House due to increased public use and general building and maintenance needs;

An increased of $50,354 for supplies and parts About $22,000 primarily due to replacement of personal protective equipment, specifically bunker gear, based on a replacement schedule required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as well as replacement of hose and special operations equipment; As well as the remaining $28,354 uptick being due to increased costs for DPW-Highway for line striping, gravel, winter sand and salt; An increase of $21,000 for public transportation services Green Mountain Transit American Disabilities Act paratransit services costs accounting for an increase of $10,000 due to increased usage; GMT services contracted to Special Services Transportation Agency for the elderly and persons with disabilities to increase by $11,000.

In short, the increased costs, excluding compensation costs for new positions, will total an additional $227,562 accounting for 1.5% of the increase in this year's budget.

Fiscal sustainability

The town has secured $1,970,000 in grants supporting 53% of the town's FY24 capital expenses and is working to secure $7,407,500 in grants to support 52% of the town's capital expenses from FY25-FY29.

Continued careful management of the budget in FY23 allowed revenues to exceed expenses, with $351,000 remaining in fund balance from FY23 to be used as revenue in FY25, subject to voter approval, which would offset tax increases.

The town also renegotiated an agreement with Green Mountain Transit to save $15,000 yearly and avoided an 18% increase in healthcare costs by aggressively negotiating and using a high deductible plan.

The FY24 municipal services tax rate is 6.7% higher than what it was in FY15, both in the rate and amount paid to the town for municipal services taxes. In FY24, an owner of a property valued at $300,000 paid approximately $116 more in municipal services taxes than in FY15.

In addition to the increase in property taxes, the town's budget is also supported by $2,192,024 in non-tax revenues from fee based services. The town aims for fee-based services to support themselves and to not grow at a slower rate than property taxes, in an effort to minimize increased taxation.

Already authorized and voter-approved long-term projects in the capital plan — including capital plans for vehicles, equipment and facilities; transportation; parks; public safety; technology and communications — total $1,146,395 for FY25.

The voter-approved debt service for the general fund in FY25 is $383,886 and is paid for entirely from revenue generated from the local option tax, not municipal services taxes.

The municipal services budget and capital funding together total $14,540,588 net of non-property tax revenues. With an estimated 1.02% in the grand list, the estimated municipal services tax rate for FY 2025 is $0.6381 per $100 of assessed value.

The tax rate is estimated to increase by $0.0282 — or a little less than three cents — per $100 of assessed property value, accounting for the 4.63% increase over the prior year.

Compared to other inner Chittenden County municipal service taxes per resident, Colchester has the second lowest tax rate of any town, not far behind Williston which has the lowest.

Budgeted town service categorical breakdowns for FY25

By department:

Police accounts for 31% of the budget, at $4,980,509; Public works accounts for 21% of the budget, at $3,347,569; "Other" accounts for 20% of the budget, at $3,131,026; Parks and recreation and the library account for 11% of the budget, at $1,709,747; Fire accounts for 7% of the budget, at $1,133,942; Town clerk and planning and zoning accounts for 6% of the budget, at $991,348; Public safety dispatch accounts for 4% of the budget, at $588,491; Rescue and technical rescue accounts for just over 0% of the budget at $54,587.

Within "other" category:

Town manager and human resources account for 32% of "other," at $1,006,403; Finance accounts for 17% of "other," at $540,621; Information technology accounts for 14% of "other," at $428,951; Intergovernmental spending accounts for 12% of "other," at $387,694; Assessor accounts for 8% of "other," at $243,677; Transfers account for 7% of "other," at $226,033; Economic development accounts for 5% of "other," at $153,715; Selectboard costs account for 3% of "other," at $76,674; Health services account for 2% of "other," at $67,253.