WALES — Regional School Unit 4 is entering budget season with preliminary estimates of $1 million to make up in order to flat-fund next year and it means heavy projected property tax increases.

School directors will meet Wednesday with selectmen from Wales, Litchfield and Sabattus to gauge how much residents might be willing to bear.

“We’re just gravely concerned that any budget that we bring forward is going to have double-digit increases to local taxes for all three towns,”  Superintendent Jim Hodgkin said. “We need to have some sort of agreement about what we can even ask the towns to consider.”

The current budget is $17.6 million, split between the three towns and the state. Hodgkin said the state has signaled that the district can expect $600,000 less this coming year. The current budget also includes $400,000 carried forward from the previous year.

“This year we’ll have nothing to carry over,” he said.

At a flat $17.6 million budget, residents with a $150,000 home would be looking at property tax increase of $124.85 in Litchfield, $201.75 in Sabattus and $184.89 in Wales just to cover the schools, according to information provided by the district.

At $17.9 million, a 2 percent increase, those homeowners would see increases of $189.86, $282.32 and $261.45, respectively.

“The preliminary numbers that we have are so devastating for us that we really haven’t been able to move forward with the budget,” Hodgkin said.

Neither set of figures includes dealing with the district’s old lunch program debt.

Everything is up for discussion when it comes to cuts, Hodgkin said.

Litchfield Town Manager Mike Byron said his selectmen already have deemed the impact at flat-funding “unacceptable.”

The numbers are “extremely alarming,” Sabattus Town Manager Andrew Gilmore said, but they’re also tentative. More state revenue could come through as legislators finalize that budget.

“I also believe that we should avoid panic and and knee-jerk reactions until we have better information,” Gilmore said.

Wednesday’s meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. at Oak Hill Middle School. It’s open to the public but not designed as a public forum, Hodgkin said.

The district plans one or two public hearings in advance of the vote on the budget in late May or early June.

kskelton@sunjournal.com