LYME—The $11.37 million proposed 2025-26 budget will be among the items up for a vote at the Town Meeting on Thursday, May 22, at 6:30 p.m., in the Lyme Town Hall, 480 Hamburg Rd.
If the proposed budget is approved, members of the Board of Finance have said the tax rate will remain unchanged. They plan to set the tax rate at the current 14.5 mills at their meeting immediately following the vote.
The budget proposal is down $1.02 million, or 8.2%, from the current budget.
The spending plan includes town operating and capital expenses, as well as Lyme’s share of the Region 18 education budget.
Education costs in Lyme’s proposed budget come out to $6.96 million for the town’s estimated 231 students. That’s up $299,504, or 4.5%, from the town’s current share. The increase is driven by debt payments on a multi-building renovation project approved by voters at a cost of $57.5 million.
Lyme’s $10.84 million town operations budget proposal is up $513,372, or 5.0%, over the current budget. Proposed capital spending comes in at $530,400, a decrease of $1.53 million, or 74.3%, from the current budget.
First Selectman David Lahm has attributed the decrease in capital spending to the completion of bridge projects on Birch Mill Road and Macintosh Road that drove up the budget in previous years.
Residents will also decide whether or not to amend the Lyme Elderly Tax Relief Ordinance to modify the income eligibility criteria.
Lahm this week said the proposed ordinance for the first time reflects income limits set by the state Office of Policy and Management each year as part of the program allowing cities and towns to offer a tax relief program for elderly and totally disabled homeowners.
He said the previous ordinance set the income cap at $40,000 per year to qualify for the tax break, and had not changed in years.
Some households receiving Social Security payments who previously qualified for the program would become ineligible when annual federal Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) put them over the $40,000 threshold, according to Lahm.
“That wasn’t the intent,” he said. “The intent is if you’re on Social Security that you should be in this program and not get bumped out by COLAs.”
He said the change brings the definition in line with state income limits “”so that when the state program does cost of living increases, our limits will also rise with that.”
The town’s annual report for the 2023-24 fiscal year will also be officially accepted at the meeting.
A summary of the proposed budget can be viewed at this link.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated with information on the proposed ordinance and annual report.