WORTHINGTON — Town Meeting will be asked to approve town and school budgets totaling $4,177,912 when voters convene May 6.
The municipal budget is up by 8.2%, or $185,690, from the current year’s spending, while spending on the elementary schools has decreased by 9.7%.
The school budget request, however, shows an increase of 7.83% at $1,371,664 because the town no longer has the benefit it had this year from more than $144,000 in one-time pandemic relief funds.
The funding request breaks down to $1,020,635 for the elementary school, $275,829 for secondary education, and $71,000 for out-of-district tuition and transportation, along with $4,200 for special education summer school.
Vocational education expenses of $286,323 and payments of $76,494 to the Gateway Regional School District will be voted on separately.
Major increases in the town budget come from payments to the Hampshire County retirement system and the Hilltown Community Ambulance Association, as well as salaries.
A request for a new dump truck for the highway department will form a separate article, Margaret “Peg” O’Neal, executive assistant to the Select Board, said. Some of the money for the request, which was not yet finalized, will come from stabilization funds and will require a two-thirds majority vote, she said.