Rehoboth Budget Presented to Selectmen

The FY’27 preliminary operating budget is 3.5 percent higher than the FY’26 budget, according to Sue Pimental, the Director of Finance and Compliance. This includes the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School, Bristol Aggie preliminary assessment, and Bristol-Plymouth assessment.

The town overall budget is approximately a 4.1 percent increase over last year’s budget. Pimental said that involves one-time expenses, including the purchase of cybersecurity software and bodycam software for the Police Department, which added up to $75,000 as well as the expense of early voting and three elections in FY’27, resulting in an $82,000 increase in election costs.

“It’s pretty crazy what the state requires,” Pimental said at Monday’s Selectman meeting.

Pimental has estimates from the two vocational schools in the region, Bristol-Plymouth and Bristol Agricultural High School.

“Again, we have capital assessments for the two new buildings,” Pimental continued. “For Bristol-Plymouth, we’re going from 56 students now versus 47 last year.”

The capital assessment is $335, 848, an increase of $90,463.

Bristol Aggie went from 39 students to 44 students. The capital assessment is $263,105, an increase of $29,898.

The Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School Committee approved a budget of $56.1 million for FY’27 at their February 26 meeting.

Pimental said Dighton-Rehoboth, Bristol-Plymouth, and Bristol Aggie combined have a 3.1 percent increase from last year.

However, Pimental added that the 3.1% increase will be further reduced to 2.3 % than last year with a revised Dighton Rehoboth Regional School Assessment increase at less than 1%.

All town departments were asked to build their individual budgets based on zero-based budgeting. The wages and salaries for town employees were set by the Treasurer and was based on union contracts.

Any employee without a contract or out of contract, the wage and salary line was populated with a three percent increase across the board, consistent with union contracts in force.

The Finance Committee will begin reviewing the budget on March 16. The town will vote on the budget at the Spring Town Meeting.