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Old Lyme Selectmen Propose Increased Incentives for Volunteer First Responders

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OLD LYME–Volunteer First Responders could see up to $1,000 more per year in incentives over a longer timeframe if voters approve a change to the local law books at the Town Budget Meeting on May 19. 

Proposed amendments to the ordinance affecting members of the Old Lyme Fire Department and Old Lyme Volunteer Ambulance Association would raise the incentive, which is part of efforts to recruit and retain more members, from $1,000 to $2,000 per year for each volunteer. 

The proposed ordinance would also allow volunteers, who served for at least 25 years, to continue receiving the benefit even if they aren’t active volunteers anymore. 

The town meeting on the 2025-26 proposed budget, which comes in at $45.39 million, will give residents and qualified taxpayers the chance to vote on five ordinance proposals in total. Four are revisions and one is new.

Old Lyme Fire Department President Robert McCarthy in an interview at the Town Hall this week said the fire and ambulance companies asked town officials to consider updating the existing ordinance on the volunteer incentive. The proposed amendments were approved unanimously by the Old Lyme Board of Selectmen on March 3.

State law in 2021 was updated to allow cities and towns to expand the incentive program, which had been implemented locally in 2002.

Initially, the ordinance existed to give volunteers a break on their taxes. But McCarthy said the program has evolved along with the town’s retirement fund for volunteer fire and ambulance personnel.

The last major change came in 2018 at a time when federal law looked at property tax reductions received by volunteers as taxable income. McCarthy said town officials addressed the problem by working out a plan to deposit the incentive into the retirement account instead of using it as a tax abatement. He said the plan was vetted by Town Attorney Jack Collins and an attorney with Pension Administrative Services Inc.

Volunteers that year were given the option to continue with the tax abatement or take the money in the retirement account, McCarthy said. Any volunteer who joined the fire department or ambulance association subsequent to the 2018 agreement received the benefit as retirement savings. 

“With this ordinance, we’re trying to revisit it all and see if we can let people have a choice again,” he said. “They’ll be able to get the tax abatement if they desire, or they can still have the money put into a retirement account instead.” 

The town also puts money into the retirement fund each year separate from the incentive authorized through the tax abatement ordinance, according to McCarthy. He said that benefit currently amounts to about $980 per year.  

In the proposed 2025-26 town operations budget, which is also up for a vote at the May 19 Town Meeting, the emergency services retirement line item amounts to $172,000. 

That’s enough money to provide 61 volunteers with the proposed $2,000 incentive, according to budget documents. 

There are currently about 55 fire department and ambulance service volunteers in the retirement plan currently, according to McCarthy. 

Old Lyme Tax Collector Suzanne Thompson said about 20 of those volunteers opted to receive the incentive as a tax abatement. 

McCarthy said using the $2,000 incentive as a tax abatement can be more advantageous for some volunteers than for those whose tax bills don’t amount to $2,000.

“Say we’ve got a young member who owns a car and their taxes are at $400 a year,” he said. “They should let the money go to the incentive plan and get all of it into their retirement account rather than only getting $400.”

He said allowing members to continue receiving the benefit once they are no longer actively responding to calls is an important change. He pointed to members who have been volunteering for more than half a century and are slowing down. 

“And they’re the ones that, under the current abatement, wouldn’t be able to get it for the rest of their lives,” he said. “They’re 70-years-old now and have been doing this for 50, 60 years.”

The 2018 retirement plan states that volunteers are vested after six years of qualified service. Benefits are paid out after members stop serving or they turn 65, whichever comes first. 

He said volunteers over the age of 65 would likely choose the tax abatement option. 

The Annual Town Budget Meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, May 19 in the Town Hall Meeting Room.

Op-Ed: Dip Into Region 18 ‘Rainy Day Fund’ to Dampen Debt Impact

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Mary Powell St. Louis

Town residents have received their postcard reminder about the 2025-2026 district budget meeting and referendum vote from Regional 18 school district both scheduled for May 5 and May 6 respectively.   

By means of background information on the school budgeting process, it is important to understand some of the Connecticut school laws defined by the general statutes. According to the Connecticut General Statutes Section 10-262(j) on minimum budget requirements, a school budget may not be less than the budget from the prior fiscal year except for limited circumstances defined in the statute. 

Additionally, section 10-51(d)(1) was amended in 2024, such that a regional school district can create a “reserve fund for educational purposes” rather than the prior designation of such fund for only “capital and nonrecurring expenditures.” The statute had also been amended in 2021 to change the amount regional school districts are allowed to appropriate from the current fiscal year’s budget from 1% to 2%.   

Key takeaway: Outside of exceptional circumstances, a school budget can never go down and there has been expansion for a regional school district like Lyme/Old Lyme in terms of how a budget surplus can be used.  

The Region 18 school district has long taken the opportunity to fund their “undesignated fund,” or reserve fund, for at least the last 10 years (per the annual October Board of Education meeting minutes on the district website). For the last four years since the change in the statute to support 2% funding of the reserve fund, Region 18 has appropriated approximately $700,000 annually to the reserve. The current reserve fund balance stands at $3.1 million. Although the Board of Education has not formally approved any of the current earmarked projects in the reserve, they are formulated in the five-year facilities plan for the district. There is no reason to doubt that at the October 2025 Board of Education meeting, the board will again vote to fund the reserve based on past experience and determination of a budget balance (unaudited at the time of the decision) in a similar range of $700,000.   

You may ask why these details matter. The 2025-2026 school district budget up for referendum stands at a 7.39% increase over the previous year’s budget and over half of the increase represents debt service (bonds) predominantly related to the $57.5 million PK-8 building project.  Debt service obligation (principal and interest) for the district is estimated to increase annually for the next five years then start to drop dramatically.

Rather than increasing the budget as proposed to cover the current year debt service requirement, I recommend the board consider the use of a portion of the reserve funds to dampen the impact of debt service on the budget in the next five years.  

Why not use all the reserve? Well, we don’t want to do that as it could adversely impact the credit rating of the district for future debt service.  Further, the forecasted campus improvement projects could not be funded for the foreseeable future.    

My suggestion is to use a portion of the reserve, equivalent to the maximum allowable 2% of budget holdback. Instead of increasing the budget by 7.39% to $39,650,803, the requested budget could be about $38.5 million, or a 5.5% increase.  Presuming the recent historical trend of budget surplus continues, this strategy would limit the growth of the budget until the debt service started to decline in five years, at which time the contribution to the reserve fund could be resumed.   

I hope that the residents of Lyme and Old Lyme consider contacting the Board of Education members about the above issues and that the board takes this into consideration at the district budget meeting on Monday May 5.  

Editor’s Note: The author, Mary Powell-St. Louis, was a member of the Region 18 Board of Education for eight years.

Referendum on Lyme-Old Lyme Schools’ Budget to be Held Tuesday, Budget Meeting Monday

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‘Rainy Day Fund’ Will Not be Used to Offset 7.4% Budget Increase

LYME/OLD LYME–Registered voters and qualified taxpayers on Tuesday will be asked to weigh in on the proposed $39.7 million budget for the regional school district serving Lyme and Old Lyme. 

The District 18 Board of Education earlier this month voted unanimously to hold a District Budget Meeting this evening, Monday, May 5, at 6:30 p.m. in the Board of Education Conference Room at Center School. Members of the school board will adjourn to a referendum vote the next day.

A livestream of Monday evening”s meeting can be viewed at this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF2_W7yYtFwx067Ici9776Q/live

The agenda for the meeting is at this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WB8EzTFs_0MSwy-MnBEaU67YXJNbRkvJ0Vwdw3qYFrk/edit?tab=t.0

The proposed budget represents an increase of $2.7 million, or 7.39%, over the current spending plan. Superintendent of Schools Ian Neviaser has said the bulk of the proposed budget increase is related to debt coming due on the extensive renovation project in four of the district’s five buildings. 

Of the proposed budget’s $2.7 million increase, $1.8 million is attributable to debt payments on the renovation project. 

Voters in late 2022 authorized spending up to $57.5 million on the project. During this budget season, Neviaser has emphasized the district will be spending about $17 million less than that due to grant funding and good interest rates.

The proposed budget includes an increase in special education spending of $726,721 over the current year.

Neviaser said the increase in special education costs is driven by more students, who need to be placed in programs outside the district to meet their needs. There are four students requiring outplacements in the coming year compared to one student when the current budget was approved. 

There are currently 180 kindergarten through grade 12 students with disabilities in the district compared to 162 in 2020-21, according to budget documents. 

Employee benefits are up $448,485, salaries for certified staff members are up $278,654 and transportation costs are up $164,234.

The proposed budget includes maintenance and improvements to district facilities totaling $359,200 for a sound system in the high school auditorium, lighting in the middle school auditorium, replacement of the preschool playground and paving of the sidewalk in front of the middle school. 

Reductions were achieved by turning the high school assistant principal position into a ten-month position rather than a full-year position and reducing middle school education staffing by one position. 

A music teacher cut in Neviaser’s initial recommendation is back in the proposed budget after the school board agreed the reduction would be detrimental to the music program. The district will find savings elsewhere in the proposed budget to cover the cost, Neviaser said. 

District budget documents show that Old Lyme would be responsible for $31.51 million of the budget, while Lyme would pay $6.96 million. Both towns are billed by the regional school district based on enrollment.

That’s a proposed increase in Old Lyme of $1.99 million, or 6.7%, and in Lyme of $299,504, or 4.5%.

Neviaser in a Tuesday email said the regional school board won’t use any of its $3.1 million undesignated fund balance – or Rainy Day Fund – to offset the spending increase despite calls to explore the option.

“The board has not chosen to make any changes to the current proposed budget and plans to go to referendum with what we believe is a fiscally responsible and reasonable request of a 2.69% increase in the operating budget coupled with a 4.7% increase in debt service, which is the main driver for the overall 7.39% increase,” he said. 

School board Chairman Jason Kemp, who said he was speaking for himself rather than the full board, wrote in an email Tuesday that the undesignated fund is generally used for projects that might be too large for an annual budget, but too small to go to referendum and bonding. 

“While nothing is planned at the moment, an example of such a project would be to replace the track which we are told can’t really be resurfaced again. It would be fiscally irresponsible to spend that down significantly to cover a year of debt service on the PK-8 school project,” he said. 

Residents voting through an absentee ballot must submit the 2025 application, which are available on the town’s websites and the Secretary of the State website. Only absentee ballot applications with the current year printed on them will be accepted. 

Absentee ballots must be received by the town clerk before the close of polls on the day of the referendum. 

The referendum is open to registered voters and non-resident property owners in each town.

The referendum will be held May 6 from noon to 8 p.m. The vote will take place in Old Lyme at the Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School Gym, 53 Lyme Street. Lyme residents will vote at the Lyme Town Hall, 480 Hamburg Road.

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with details of the time and location of the Budget Meeting, and links to both the meeting agenda and the livestream of the meeting.

Old Lyme Town Budget Hearing Uncontentious Despite Proposed 7.8% Increase Over Current Spending

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OLD LYME – Board of Finance Chairman Bennett J. Bernblum on Monday presented the proposed $45.39 million budget along with its potential implications on taxes in this and coming years. 

The proposed $45.39 million 2025-26 budget – which includes town operations and capital expenses as well as the town’s share of the regional Lyme-Old Lyme school district – represents an increase of $3.28 million, or 7.8%, over current spending. It is heavily influenced by large-scale renovation projects affecting the schools and the Lymes’ Senior Center. 

The public hearing on the budget lasted just over a half hour in front of roughly two dozen people in the Town Hall meeting room. Bernblum opened with the acknowledgement that it was not the kind of “sell out crowd” that drew more than 550 people to the Lyme-Old Lyme High School earlier this month to discuss for more than three hours a controversial proposal to allow apartments on the commercial strip of Halls Road. 

Amid the apparent lack of controversy Monday night, Bernblum laid out the budget proposal he said would likely raise tax bills for the average property owner by around 4.7% based on the recent townwide property revaluation. But residents whose home values increased more than the average will see a heftier hike in their tax bills. 

He said the projected tax rate, which won’t be set until immediately after the proposed budget is approved by voters, will be 16.2 mills.

A mill represents $1 in tax per $1,000 of assessed property value.  

Bernblum has said the tax rate would be going up 6.8% if the finance board didn’t offset the increase by taking $800,000 out of the undesignated fund balance, or Rainy Day Fund.

The current tax rate is 24.4 mills. After taking the revaluation into account – and if spending did not change at all in the coming year – the tax rate would be 15.5 mills. 

The town’s grand list of taxable property grew by 57.4% as a result of the revaluation, according to final assessor’s data that takes into account adjustments by the Board of Assessment Appeals. The board finished its final hearings earlier this month. 

That means a house appraised at $400,000 with a valuation mirroring the average 57.4% increase to the grand list is now worth $629,600, according to Bernblum’s presentation. The tax bill for that homeowner based on the proposed budget would be $7,153 – an increase of $321, or 4.7%, over the current tax bill. 

Illustrating the complexity of a revaluation year, Bernblum said a house valued at $600,000 that went up 65% in value due to the revaluation is now worth $990,000. The owner of such a home can expect a $11,247 tax bill if the proposed budget goes through. That’s an increase of $999, or 9.8%, over the current tax bill. 

Old Lyme’s government operations expenses come in at $11.39 million, an increase of $835,260 million, or 7.9%, over the current budget. That includes debt service amounting to $702,350, which is up $271,168, or 62.9%, over current payments. The increase is driven largely by debt payments on the Lymes’ Senior Center renovation project.

The proposal includes an additional $107,000 increase in health insurance expenses over the current year.

The budget proposal, along with new language related to several town ordinances, will go to voters at a town meeting on May 19. 

The Impact of Education

The proposed budget in Old Lyme includes education costs of $31.52 million, which is up $1.99 million, or 6.72%, from the town’s current share of the regional school district budget. The increase is driven by debt payments on a multi-building renovation project approved by voters at a cost of $57.5 million. 

A referendum on the $39.7 million Region 18 budget proposal – which represents an increase of $2.7 million, or 7.39%, over the current spending plan for the district – is scheduled for May 6 in Lyme and Old Lyme.

The Region 18 Board of Education earlier this month voted unanimously to send the budget proposal to referendum.

Earlier objections to a decision to cut an elementary music teacher from the proposed budget were muted after the school board agreed to put the position back into the spending plan. The district will find savings elsewhere in the proposed budget to cover the cost, according to Superintendent of Schools Ian Neviaser. 

Neviaser in a Tuesday email said the regional school board has opted not to use any of its $3.1 million undesignated fund balance to offset the spending increase despite calls to explore the option.

“The board has not chosen to make any changes to the current proposed budget and plans to go to referendum with what we believe is a fiscally responsible and reasonable request of a 2.69% increase in the operating budget coupled with a 4.7% increase in debt service, which is the main driver for the overall 7.39% increase,” he said. 

School board Chairman Jason Kemp, who said he was speaking for himself rather than the full board, wrote in an email Tuesday that the undesignated fund is generally used for projects that might be too large for an annual budget, but too small to go to referendum and bonding. 

“While nothing is planned at the moment, an example of such a project would be to replace the track which we are told can’t really be resurfaced again. It would be fiscally irresponsible to spend that down significantly to cover a year of debt service on the PK-8 school project,” he said. 

He noted the proposed budget is less than the projected 10% increase for the coming year that had been presented to the towns prior to the referendum vote on that project. He cited lower than expected interest rates and grant funding that helped defray costs.

Rainy Days in Old Lyme 

On the town side, the finance board on April 15 voted to use $800,000 from its own undesignated fund balance to soften the impact of the proposed budget increase on taxpayers. 

Budget figures from Finance Director Anita Mancini show the allocation will bring the predicted $14.2 million Rainy Day Fund from 35.15% of the total operating budget at the end of this budget year to an estimated 29.6% in the coming budget year.

Bernblum said maintaining a healthy undesignated fund balance will help the town mitigate the effect of increasing budgets on taxpayers going forward. 

“And that will still leave (a) surplus of a significant amount to hedge against future needs,” he said. 

He emphasized that debt payments from the schools’ renovation project will continue to increase through the 2028-29 budget year. 

“So debt service for Region 18 is going to continue to go up significantly, but not astronomically, over the next several years, and then finally it will begin to come down,” he said. 

A philosophical schism between the two major parties on the finance board has pitted Democrats against Republicans. The decision to dip into the Rainy Day Fund for $800,000 represented a compromise among the three Democrats, who wanted to use more of the surplus to mitigate tax increases, and the three Republicans, who would have preferred to use less in order to save for the future. 

Some finance board members at the time said the town could be facing costs in coming years related to a years-long effort to bring sewers to several beach communities under pressure from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. 

While town officials have long said the expense would be covered by property owners in the affected beach areas, Bernblum on Monday acknowledged there could be costs to residents at large. 

State law specifies towns cannot assess property owners for any amount higher than the percent increase in the property value attributed to the sewers.

“It is possible that something could go wrong in the formula and that…the (Old Lyme Water Pollution Control Authority) won’t be able to bill the homeowners all of the costs necessary to recover 100%, in which case then the town could have some liability,” he said. 

Shoemaker said costs related to connecting town-owned properties to the sewer system, including the Old Lyme Police Department on Shore Road and a planned bathroom facility at Sound View Beach, would also be covered by the town. 

She said the town’s proposed capital plan includes $20,000 for initial engineering designs related to the Sound View bathrooms and contemplates spending an additional $20,000 on designs the following year. 

Uncertain Expenses

Proposed capital costs come in at $2.49 million in the proposed budget. That’s up $456,792, or 22.5%, from the current budget.

The capital spending plan includes $443,500 to save for the purchase of three fire department apparatuses over the next several years. Also included in the budget is an additional $200,000 for road-paving projects, bringing the total line item to $1 million.

The plan earmarks $70,200 toward architectural designs sought by the Halls Road Improvements Committee (HRIC) for a plan to add a pedestrian bridge, sidewalks and other amenities, according to Bernblum. 

But the Board of Selectmen last week agreed to put the work of the HRIC on hold in the wake of a groundswell of opposition to a separate proposal to amend the town’s zoning regulations and the subsequent resignation of HRIC Chairwoman Edie Twining. 

“What is going to happen with Halls Road is in the hands of the Board of Selectmen primarily at this point,” Bernblum said. “So what they decide to do, or we decide to do, with respect to Halls Road at the moment has not been decided.” 

Proposed capital expenses also include $80,000 to supplement $95,000 approved last year at a town meeting for the design and construction of a replacement gazebo at White Sands Beach. 

First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker said the town engineer’s original estimates were upended when it was discovered the town would have to follow state and federal flood zone requirements in updating the structure. 

Subsequent estimates came in at $173,000 for the project, according to Feb. 24 Board of Selectmen meeting minutes. 

Shoemaker attributed the steep increase to more stringent guidelines for installing the footings and holding the gazebo in place. 

Shoemaker said the plan is to complete the engineering designs using last year’s allocation so the project can go out to bid. 

Bernblum put it this way: “We’ll go out to bid when the designs are completed and cross our fingers that there’s enough money. And if not, we’re going to have to come back to you guys and beg for more.” 

Bernblum said the finance board remains open to public feedback on the proposed budget through the May 19 town meeting. 

“Historically, we haven’t gotten negative feedback in regards to it, but we certainly invite that,” he said.

Editor’s Notes: i) Bennett Bernblum is a financial supporter of LymeLine.com, but has no input to the editorial process, which remains completely independent.
ii) A reminder of Our Policy on Comments.

Lyme Board of Finance Proposes $11.37 Million Budget With No Tax Increase

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Despite Increase in D18 Spending, Budget Down Over $1M Primarily due to Reduction in Capital Costs

LYME – The Board of Finance is predicting a flat tax rate after they unanimously approved a proposed $11.37 million 2025-26 spending plan that will go to a public hearing next month. 

The budget proposal is down $1.02 million, or 8.2%, from the current budget. 

The Board of Finance on Tuesday voted to send the proposed budget to a public hearing on May 8. The finance board will then take a vote on sending the spending plan to a Town Meeting preliminarily set for May 22.

If the proposed budget is approved by voters, the finance board said it will set the tax rate at the current 14.5 mills immediately following the town meeting. 

The budget proposal 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. 

The Region 18 budget, which totals $39.7 million for the district covering Lyme and Old Lyme, is set to go to a referendum vote in both towns on May 6.

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 in a Tuesday interview at the Town Hall attributed the decrease in capital spending to the completion of bridge projects on Birch Mill Road and Macintosh Road that had driven up the budget in previous years. 

He said the town is looking at a flat tax rate because officials are not extravagant in their budget planning. 

“We take care of what needs to be taken care of, but we understand the difference between ‘I want’ and ‘I need,’” he said. 

Planning for Tomorrow’s Needs Today

The town’s projected general fund balance – referred to informally as a Rainy Day Fund – amounts to $4.14 million in the proposed budget. The figure represents about 33% of total anticipated revenues, which is one of the figures credit agencies look at to gauge a town’s financial health. 

Finance board Chairman Alan Sheiness at this week’s meeting said the bond agent for the school district told him S&P Global Ratings likes to see reserves in the area of at least 19% to secure a AA or AAA credit rating. 

Finance board policy dictates that the town maintain a “target” fund balance equivalent to two months of operating expenses, but Sheiness in a Friday phone interview said two months’ savings is more of a minimum than a target. 

Nearby towns like Old Lyme have debated how much money to keep in the Rainy Day Fund in order to save for emergencies while not overtaxing residents. 

In a phone interview Friday, Sheiness acknowledged the fund balance in Lyme has historically exceeded the two months’ target. But he said the number fluctuates based on big-ticket capital expenses that may be needed in any given year. 

Sheiness said the finance board looks several years ahead when determining how much money should remain in the town’s reserves. 

“I do understand the number is high today for today’s needs, but it’s not too high today for the next few years’ needs,” he said.