by Andrew Martin

     On Tuesday, March 6, voters of the Town of Wolcott will be asked to approve a budget for the fiscal year (FY) 2013 that has increased slightly over the budget that was passed last year. The town selectboard will be presenting voters with a budget that has risen $104,968, from $1,055,253 in FY 2012 to $1,160,221 in the proposed budget for FY 2013. The $104,968 is a 9.947 percent increase over last year’s budget.
     The increase in the budget being proposed by the Wolcott Selectboard is due in part to increases in several town departments and offices. The Elections budget was increased from $670 in FY 2012 to $2,920 in FY 2013, while the library and highway department were two other areas where noticeable increases took place. The proposed library budget is $51,612, up from $48,901 in FY 2012, while the proposed budget for the highway department has risen from $406,491 in FY 2012 to a proposed $509,599 for FY 2013.
     An additional area that have seen an increase in the proposed budget include Wolcott’s Parks and Recreation budget, which was created this year, meaning that the budget for that department has gone from $0 to $4,500.   Other areas where increases occurred include the Town Building Maintenance fund, which increased from $6,000 in FY 2012 to $10,000 in FY 2013, as well as the fund set aside to pay for miscellaneous expenses, which has increased from $31,055 last year to a proposed $36,413 in the upcoming year. The amount that the town pays for police coverage with the Lamoille County Sheriff’s Department has also increased, rising from $177,292 in FY 2012 to $195,004 in FY 2013.
     While there were increases in the proposed budgets for some departments, there were also a fair number of decreases in other departments. The board was only required to budget $22,527 to help pay the town’s debt in FY 2013, a sum that has dropped considerably from the $63,355 budgeted in FY 2012. The amount budgeted by the board for insurance also decreased, dropping from $41,927 last year to a proposed $37,122 for FY 2013. A third department seeing a decrease in proposed budget is the Landfill, which is dropping from $5,351 last year to $5,210 for FY 2013.
     Along with the budget being proposed by the selectboard, there are also several articles that the townspeople will be asked to vote on at Town Meeting in March that also concern funding projects or groups. Article eight of the warning for the Wolcott Town Meeting asks “Shall the Town appropriate up to $30,000 to be used for a Veteran’s Memorial?” Along with article eight, the warning also presents an article asking that the town voters “appropriate $16,535” to help fund several social service agencies.
     In total, the Wolcott Selectboard is asking the voters to authorize “a total general fund expenditure for operating expenses” of $1,209,756. Of that figure, a total of $959,661 will be raised by taxes, while $247,095 would be raised by non-tax related revenues.