Tell Us: Is 1 Percent Enough of an Increase for the 2013-14 Tolland Municipal Budget?

How much is enough? It's a question that heads of households, business CEOs and town and school officials have to ask themselves as they look out over the year ahead to determine how best to make ends meet.

Earlier this week, as the best way to keep spending in check and provide necessary government and educational services to residents and students. (The proposal is $482,491, or 0.94 percent, more than this year's adopted spending plan.)

It breaks down as such:

• $357,000 more for the schools, a 1 percent increase to $36.06 million.
• $62,515 more for general government, or a 0.58 percent increase to $10.9 million.
• $92,840 more for debt service, bringing the town to $4.74 million or an increase of 2 percent.
• $29,886 less for capital improvements, bringing that budget to $141,991.

If the proposal stays as such, it needs to be approved by the Town Council and then the taxpayers at a town-wide budget referendum, it would mean a reduction in staff on the government side and the decrease of hours at places such as Crandall Park swimming hole, the number of bulky waste pickups each year and street sweeping.

It is not known what adjustments would be made to the school budget, as the Board of Education originally requested a 3.78 percent increase in the coming fiscal year.

So the question is, is the budget, as it's proposed, a responsible one for the schools and the government operations? It would require a 0.67 percent tax increase. Is that enough? Should there be more money for expenditures, or should the budget be reduced further? To read more about the budget, click on this link to go to the town's website.