PETERSHAM – At Thursday’s Selectboard meeting, residents will get to peruse a draft of the FY24 budget being hammered out by the Advisory Finance Committee, Selectboard, department heads and other town officials.

An initial draft of the budget was discussed at the board’s meeting on Thursday, May 11.

The total municipal budget presented in that draft totaled just under $5.1 million. This includes $2.9 million in education spending, plus $480,000 in proposed spending proposed in articles on the Annual Town Meeting warrant.

FinCom Vice Chair Mark Bishop said residents should be encouraged by the budget proposal.

“You can see that that grand total budget went up by 2.82 percent,” he said. “And you also see the school budget went up by 2.9 percent. Those are very good numbers. I have a warm, puppy-dog feeling about the budget.”

Bishop said a fair portion of the budget is for education spending, and the portion for the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School decreased by 7.1 percent over last fiscal year. This offsets a 6.9 percent increase at the Petersham Center School.

Bishop did note that Petersham’s assessment for the Montachusett Regional Technical Vocational High School saw a substantial increase of $93,768 to $130,375.

“This is all related to enrollment, primarily,” he explained. “As we have a few more kids go, the cost goes up. It went up quite a bit, but it doesn’t have all that much impact on the final number because it’s not that big of a number.”

Special articles in the warrant for the Annual Town Meeting include paying the debt service on several Proposition 2 ½ debt exclusions approved by voters in recent years. The largest such item is a nearly $104,000 payment on the debt for the Petersham Center School addition. Voters approved a $1.3 million loan for the project in 2005 and there are two more payments to make. There is also an $88,000 payment for the demolition of the Nichewaug Inn & Academy.

Anticipated revenues for the town include nearly $750,000 in state aid, which includes state local aid monies and state Chapter 70 for education. At present, town officials anticipate $496,000 in Chapter 70 funding and approximately $252,000 in general government assistance. The latter figure includes $135,000 in unrestricted state aid and $101,000 in payments in lieu of taxes to the town for state-owned properties in Petersham, as well as highway funds, veterans spending and aid to public libraries.

Bishop stressed that the figures presented represent an initial draft of the FY24 budget and some numbers could change before a spending package is finalized.

Thursday’s public information meeting on the budget is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Petersham Town Hall. The special and annual Town Meetings are set for June 5 at 7 p.m. at the same location.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.

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