Monday night, April 17, was the second-to-last meeting on the Town’s budget for Fiscal Year 2024. A series of Town Council workshops were held over three nights in late March; Monday’s meeting was the opportunity for taxpayers to ask questions and raise concerns about the proposed budget.

That budget amounts to $67,308,961, representing a 2.75% increase over last year. The total tax levy amounts to $48,287,941. The property tax rate is anticipated to increase from $13 per $1,000 of value to $13.36, meaning for the average Bristol homeowner with a home value of $411,000 could see a property tax increase of $147 per year, once tax rolls are certified in June.

Of the total budget, $29,285,376 of that goes to the Bristol Warren Regional School District, representing a 1.82% increase over last year.

Whether it was a function of taxpayer confidence in our Town government, or mathematical apathy, is unclear, but the one resident who came to the hearing to speak was, according to Council Chairman Nathan Calouro, more than in most years.

Calouro and the rest of the Council were clearly happy with the budget that emerged from their March workshops.

“We’ve had multiple meetings, as we always do, and spent a lot of time,” he said. “But as I have said and my colleagues agree, Mr. Administrator, to you and to the department heads, thank you for giving us a well thought out budget, well presented.”

“I agree,” said Councilor Tim Sweeney. “I think it's a balanced budget and what I love about it is that it's moving the town forward in the right direction. We continue to not only go for new projects, we’re also doing a lot of maintenance as well…that's so important, that we're maintaining what we have.”

Councilor Aaron Ley noted that the budget was a good team effort, and Sweeney added that they were all especially pleased that they were able to fully meet the funding request submitted by the BWRSD. “That has always been really important to us,” said Sweeney.

When Calouro asked if either of the two people in the room had anything to add, resident Brian Clark stepped up to the podium, qualifying his comments by suggesting he was just looking for clarification and was not intending to be adversarial. Clark had some questions about the allocations for certain town departments, relative to the town of Lincoln, which is he was using as a point of comparison as it is perhaps the town most demographically similar to Bristol.

He singled out the Department of Public Works for a budget that is somewhat higher in Bristol relative to Lincoln, and particularly the Town Administrator’s and Town Clerk’s offices for budgets significantly higher — more than double, in both of those cases. “I’m sure there's a reason for it,” said Clark. “I don't want to play gotcha with anybody, I'm just trying to understand.”

Councilor Mary Parella was the first to point out that there are many inconsistencies in the budget structure from town to town. “Are we comparing the same thing?” she asked, noting that budget allocations for each town’s DPW may appear in different places, depending on wither or not the town is doing its own trash hauling, as Bristol is, or contracting it out. “I think is an interesting point that you raise, Brian. It would be nice to do an analysis.”

Town Administrator Steven Contente noted that, for example, his office took on the position of Operations Manager, which replaced the position of Economic Development Coordinator — not a new position, just one that is being budgeted under a different department than it was in the past, as the new role includes responsibilities throughout the Town Hall complex.
“If you look at the municipal salary survey, that's a good starting point,” said Contente. “You'll see many mayors and administrators have a chief of staff, or a director of administration. Bristol doesn't have that.”

“I know what you're saying, but there isn't a template for local government and how departments are set up in the budget…you brought up great points there, but it's not a template.”

The conversation continued, enumerating the many ways in which a fair comparison of the two budgets would require a much deeper drill-down that what could be achieved with the information that was available at hand.

“I’m glad you're here talking about that because we're always looking about ways to improve our budget,” said Sweeney.

“What were the total expenditures for Lincoln?” asked Ley. “Ours is a proposed 67 million.”

The surprising answer, which underscored the challenges of comparing two differently-structured municipal budgets, is that Lincoln’s is $98 million — nearly 30% higher. They don’t have a regionalized school district, and they don’t have a largely volunteer fire department. They do have a State Police barracks, which could impact their need to fund a department to the extent that Bristol does. They have a casino that generates revenue; their DPW probably needs to plow more in winter, but it never has to contend with coastal flooding. The list goes on.

“There is no cookie cutter way to compare communities without pulling all the numbers and doing a fair comparison,” said Calouro.

Residents who want to look at the budget for themselves can find it on the Town website under Finance. The final budget meeting, at which the Council’s approval is anticipated, will be held Monday, May 1.