Darien Town Budget Increase Driven by Debt Service Increase

Darien's Town Administrator submitted his budget recently, and asks for a 6% increase over FY 11 estimated spending.

The 6% increase is $2.3 million. Of this, $1.7 million is for debt service increases. This is comprised of a $712 thousand increase in school debt service, a $998 thousand increase in town debt service and a $29 thousand decrease in sewer debt service.

Excluding the increase in the debt service, the Town's budget is proposed to grow $599 thousand in FY 12 or 2.1% over FY 11 estimated spending. That is in line with expected inflation of ~2%.

In FY 09 total town spending was $105 million. Proposed spending in FY 12 is $118 million. Over this same time period total school spending, including debt service is expected to grow from $76 million to $86 million, and town spending from $29 million to $31 million. That is, school spending is projected to grow 13% and town spending 7%.

While school spending is proposed to growth 13%, school enrollment is expected to grow 3%.