BRUNSWICK

With a 7.12 percent tax hike looming on the horizon, Brunswick school and municipal officials are looking to make more than $1 million in cuts.

Within the past week, Interim Town Manager and Finance Director John Eldridge and School Superintendent Paul Perzanoski have been discussing ways to trim their budgets. Perzanoski will present his recommendations to the school board tonight.

The Town Council will take up the matter tomorrow; at the same time they will hold a public hearing on the combined budget.

In order to keep the budget increase to less than 4 percent — a figure deemed more palatable by members of the council — the municipal portion may be cut by $530,000. The school department is facing a proposed $580,000 cut.

However, the council on Monday indicated they were seeking an increase of no more than 3.5 percent, which would mean an additional $88,500 in cuts to the school district. The additional cuts will have to come from personnel, according to Perzanoski.

“There’s no other place to go,” he said.

At least $333,000 in cuts will come as part of a budget proposal that Perzanoski had previously submitted to — and was rejected by — the school board. Other cuts will be revealed tonight, he said.

“This will bring us down to zero, in terms of looking at the difference between last year and this year,” Perzanoski said. “But if you look at districts around us, everybody else has an increase … Up and down (interstate) 295, there’s nobody in the same situation.”

Town Council Vice Chairwoman Sarah Brayman said she was hopeful that Eldridge could find additional revenue that may help offset some of the burden on the municipal budget. Brayman and Town Council Chairman Benet Pols, however, said they were concerned about Eldridge’s proposed $233,000 reduction for capital improvements projects. About $75,000 would be cut in paving, and $158,000 would be eliminated for vehicle replacement for departments such as police, public works, and parks and recreation.

“Cutting capital investment is not a long-term strategy to setting up the budget,” said Brayman, who chairs the town’s capital improvements committee.

Pols noted that last year, paving projects in his district were delayed a year “in an effort to squeeze $90,000” out of the budget. Delaying road maintenance, however, can lead to costlier resurfacing later due to advanced deterioration, he said.

“You reach a point where you can’t cut into capital improvements any more,” Pols said, but noted the next areas to cut may be personnel.

Pols and Perzanoski have both expressed frustration with the council over this year’s budget process. Pols said that, while the council wants Eldridge to make cuts, it is not giving him specific instruction on what items or positions should go.

“There was no specific direction as to what he should cut ,” said Pols. “Nobody wants to be the bad guy.”

Perzanoski said he and the school board want next year’s budget process to be different.

“It’s too long, too drawn out,” he said. “If the council is going to have a number from the beginning, I’d like to know that from the start, and save a lot of turmoil.”

The council will undertake a vote May 29 on adopting a combined municipal and school budget. The school budget alone will come before voters in a June referendum.

jswinconeck@timesrecord.com