Taxes on the typical Milford home with a market value of $311,070 will increase $205 next year under the newly adopted city budget. That's about $17 more a month.
The Board of Aldermen adopted a 2014-15 city budget Wednesday night, setting a new mill rate of 27.22, which is up from the current rate of 26.28.
Overall, the $198,336,922 spending plan represents a 2.2% spending increase over the current year, much of which Mayor Ben Blake said was unavoidable.
The Board of Aldermen made some sizable cuts when it met Wednesday for its final deliberations on the 2014-15 budget, trimming more than $1 million from the plan submitted by the Board of Finance earlier in the budget process.
Those cuts included $300,000 from the school board’s budget request, $54,000 earmarked for a new building inspector and $78,000 for a new accountant, all of which the finance board had recommended.
One issue that had drawn considerable attention during the budget process was the removal of the assistant city planner’s job. The Board of Finance had recommended cutting the assistant city planner’s post, currently held by Emmeline Harrigan, for a savings of about $78,000, and adding a building inspector for about $54,000.
Despite a passionate plea by Alderman Frank Smith to add Harrigan’s job back into the budget, the attempt failed. While it looked like the aldermen might vote to omit the new building inspector position to keep Harrigan’s job in place, after a couple of votes, both Harrigan’s job and the building inspector position were voted out.
Check back later for more details on Wednesday night’s budget vote.