The 2015 Andover School District budget recommended by the Budget Committee was presented in the front-page article in the February Beacon. A total appropriation of $4,774,465 is proposed, up $19,912 over last year’s appropriation. Since the New Hampshire Department of Education is increasing the Education Grant to Andover for 2015 by $57,010, this results in the amount to be raised by taxes over last year to be down by $37,098 (down almost 1%).

The February article in the Beacon also presented a draft Andover Town budget. Since that article appeared, the Budget Committee has considered and finalized its recommendations.

The finalized Town budget (net of pass-throughs) is $1,650,169. The net appropriation for 2014 was $1,830,331. The reduction compared to last year is $180,162 (down 9.8%).

The Budget Committee and the Selectmen agreed to postpone adding further funds to the Lawrence Bridge Capital Reserve Fund until an engineering study of the bridge’s deficiencies is completed.

Detailed analysis of the costs and savings associated with providing highway maintenance functions with Town employees rather than contracted services showed that the start-up costs were recovered through operational savings within three years. The accumulated savings after eight years amounted to $158,000. The Budget Committee and the Selectmen recommend this operational improvement.

To reduce the initial impact of the Highway Department change and to offset some of the increases in operating costs, the usual budgeting of $150,000 for special road projects will be omitted thus year.

Combining the reductions in the School budget and the Town budget results in a total reduction of $217,260 in the amount to be raised by taxes, resulting in an estimated tax rate reduction of about $0.80 (down 4%).