Town Administrator Derek Sullivan presented a first look at the town’s balanced budget for the next fiscal year at the Feb. 1 Select Board’s meeting. 

Sullivan said the town’s total estimated revenue for Fiscal Year 2023 is $72,215,636 — that includes a tax levy of $46,688,406 with an additional $1,448,431 collected to repay the debt taken out for the new school.

Overall, that’s a 3.86 percent increase over the Fiscal Year 2022 budget.

In all, about 64 percent of the town’s revenue comes from taxes. About a quarter of the town’s revenue is from state aid, and about 9 percent comes from local receipts. 

“Without that [aid] we would definitely be in a tough place,” said Sullivan.

Sullivan said that one major change to the town’s budget is the inclusion of a salary for a full-time director for the Council On Aging. Also to be funded by the town is an additional part-time employee for the Library. 

The town has very little debt right now, Sullivan said, so the town’s debt repayment is down 11 percent from last year.

Another area of savings is workman’s comp insurance. That will cost the town $150,000 less this year than last year, thanks in part to hard work by Human Resources Director Dorene Allen-England, Sullivan said.

The average single family tax bill this year will be $3,513 for town taxes alone. Including Fire District taxes, the average bill will be $4,259 in Wareham and $4,402 in Onset. 

Those figures are significantly lower than in surrounding towns, Sullivan said. In Bourne, the average bill is $5,295, and in Mattapoisett, it’s $6,628.