GOSHEN — The annual Town Meeting will take place this Saturday, where voters will decide on a $3.42 million general fund budget and whether to establish an enterprise fund for the town’s municipal broadband service.
“I think it’s fairly straightforward,” said Dawn Scaparotti, interim town administrator and chairwoman of the Finance Committee.
Town Meeting will take place in a tent behind the Town Offices beginning at 9:30 a.m. Masks are not required for the meeting but are encouraged.
Voters will be weighing an 18-item annual Town Meeting warrant, and one question is whether to approve the $3.42 million fiscal 2023 general fund budget that the Finance Committee is recommending. This budget is a $119,690 increase from the fiscal 2022 general fund budget of $3.3 million.
Scaparotti said the main drivers of the increase are boosts in compensation for town employees meant to make their positions more competitive with neighboring towns, inflation, and increased contributions to the capital stabilization fund.
Voters will also decide on establishing an enterprise fund for the town’s municipal broadband service. The purpose of the fund would be to track and segregate all funds associated with the service.
The Finance Committee also shared in the report it released before Town Meeting that the service is on track in its first year of operation to meet its goal of being able to fund itself through its subscribers, and is projected to produce a surplus.
Voters also will decide whether to transfer $332,223 of free cash into the capital stabilization fund.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.