Weston Finance Committee Backs 11 Warrant Articles, Advances FY23 School Budget Review

WESTON -- March 3, 2022, Weston Finance Committee votes to support 11 town meeting warrant articles and reviews a 2.5 percent school budget increase. Meeting jointly with the School Committee on March 3, Assistant Superintendent Sherry Matthews presented a revised FY23 general fund school budget of approximately $44.2 million, trimmed from an initial 3.3 percent proposal to a $1,093,519 increase over FY22 after cutting building substitute positions and roughly $129,000 in additional staffing. Finance Committee Chair Lisa Raytano and five colleagues, Bharath Venkataraman, James Jarrett, John MacDonald, Karen Mezzan, and Latha Sashadri, then voted unanimously to support most warrant articles including a $450,000 drainage borrowing, a $480,000 culvert replacement, a $360,000 fire department vehicle, and a $387,000 network upgrade; a $413,000 Route 20 intersection design borrowing passed 5-1 with MacDonald dissenting. Town finance staff projected a tax rate of $13.28 per thousand, a 47-cent increase, and a median household tax bill of $17,620, representing a 3.68 percent overall tax increase, with state aid figures still unsettled.