Worcester approves $300.2M spending plan, OK’s $8.9M increase for school system
Worcester County government passed its $300 million budget this week after an eleventh-hour vote on school funding left the board of education millions short of its request.
The county commissioners on Tuesday voted 4-3 to approve their fiscal 2027 operating budget with an increase for Worcester County Public Schools of $8.96 million instead of the $12.6 million increase the school district had sought.
Reducing the requested allocation to schools left the county with a $3 million surplus. Commissioners opted to park that surplus in a reserve account for unspecified capital projects, with a suggestion to use it toward the rebuild of Buckingham Elementary School in Berlin.
The commissioners ultimately allocated $134.2 million for the Worcester County Board of Education, which includes about $10.6 million in pension fund payments. It leaves the county with a balanced fiscal year 2027 operating budget of $300,172,146, according to county Budget Officer Kim Reynolds.
After weeks of budget hearings, the commissioners entered their June 2 deadline meeting with a projected $252,726 deficit, based on revenues of about $300.2 million and expenditures of about $300.4 million, Reynolds said.
The county also benefitted this year from a $15.7 million boost in property tax revenues, bolstered by rising assessments. Other local tax revenue climbed by $1 million including hotel room taxes ($375,000) and the real estate transfer tax ($500,000). Income taxes and property taxes were unchanged at 2.25% and 81.5 cents, respectively.
The last budget expenditure to sort out Tuesday, and the largest, was school funding.
Commissioner Chip Bertino made the motion for an increase of $8,963,136. He said th