GOSHEN — Voters at Monday’s annual Town Meeting will consider a $2.6 million budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
The proposed $2,634,759 budget is a 2.98 percent increase over the current year’s budget.
The Town Meeting will start at 7 p.m. at the John James Memorial Hall on Main Street.
Funding for education represents 54 percent of the budget at a total of $1,390,314. This includes $717,317 for the Chesterfield-Goshen School, $482,198 for the Hampshire Regional School District, $153,018 for vocational school education and $37,781 for vocational transportation.
Angela Otis, chairwoman of the Select Board and a member of the Finance Committee, said funding for the schools has gone up 5.45 percent over last year.
Otis said town employees will not receive across-the-board raises next year.
“This is disappointing to us,” Otis said. “The town does not have substantial growth and this makes it is very difficult to allocate raises across the board.”
Otis noted that the town had recently done a comparison study of salaries in several other towns for comparable positions in Goshen. The study showed that the town clerk and town treasurer are seriously underfunded and they are the only positions recommended for pay increases.
Voters will also be asked to transfer from free cash $3,968 into the Highway Vehicle Stabilization Fund and $8,570 into the Police Vehicle Stabilization Fund. They will then be asked to appropriate those amounts to pay for a 2014 Mack dump truck and a 2013 police cruiser.